This article focuses on a legislation on marking ballots. The ballot law of every state contains a section on how to mark the paper ballot. This section, brief in some states and detailed in others, covers the following points: the method of marking, materials to be used, the use of the write-in privilege and of pasters, and instructions to be printed on the ballot. For this study, which is limited to general elections, the laws and the ballots of all the forty-eight states have been examined. When there is irregularity of marking the practice is to allow the intention of the voter, if discernible, to prevail. Five states allow a combination of the cross mark and scratching or lining out. The Georgia law prescribes the use of the cross in the party- column parentheses for straight ticket voting, but requires that the voter line out the names of undesired candidates when a split ticket is voted. The Texas voter may vote a straight ticket by running a line vertically through all party columns voted against; he may vote a mixed ticket by running a line horizontally through the names of such candidates as he desires to vote against in the column of his preferred party and writing in the name of the candidate for whom he wishes to vote or leaving unscratched the desired names in other columns.