What Evan said. There was a lot of pressure to vote "the correct way". Lincoln got no votes in the South because everyone could have seen you trying to vote for him. The secret ballot wasn't adopted in the US until the 1880s-90s. Partisan premarked ballots were used until 1950! ->

-> That is, the state didn't provide a ballot. The newspapers or parties printed premarked partisan ballots, & if they didn't see you put in the "correct" ballot, they could see & there might be trouble. In Texas, ->