Mechanical Lever Voting Machine.

To begin, the voter pulled the lower red lever to the right; this would close the booth’s privacy curtain. One could either vote a straight ticket by pulling one of the party levers or a split ticket by pushing down individual levers over candidates’ names. “Yes” and “no” options were available for the initiatives listed along the top.

When the voter had finished, he or she pulled the red lever back to the left, opening the curtain and clearing the choices. Votes were counted on counter wheels inside the machine. At the end of the night, the numbers from all the machines were added together for the total tally.