Devoted to technical writing and technical writers

sourced by JMJF

In present-day elections, the actual day of voting is usually a quiet affair, with ballots marked manually or electronically.  In olden times, a voice vote was usually the norm, with voters shouting their preferences on issues put before them. The louder the shouting, the surer the victory in the vote. Such electoral exercises soon became known as “shoutings”.

Sometimes, however, the outcome of an election would be so obvious that electors would say that “it was all over but the shouting.” The actual voice vote would only validate what many voters already knew.