Ballot
mid 16th century (originally denoting a small coloured ball placed in a container to register a vote): from Italian ballotta, diminutive of balla (see ball1).
wiktionary
Borrowed from Italian balota(obsolete), ballotta(“small ball, especially one used to register a vote”), from balla(“ bale, bundle”) + -otta(“suffix forming diminutive nouns”); or from Middle French balote(obsolete), ballotte(“small ball used to register a vote”) (also compare Middle French balotiage, French ballottage(“second ballot, runoff”)).
etymonline
ballot (n.)
1540s, "small ball used in voting," also "secret vote taken by ballots," from Italian pallotte, diminutive of palla "ball," for small balls used as counters in secret voting, from a Germanic source, from PIE root *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell." Earliest references are to Venice. By 1776 extended to tickets or sheets of paper used in secret voting. Ballot box attested from 1670s; metonymically from 1834 as "system or practice of voting by ballot."
ballot (v.)
1540s, "to vote by secret method" (such as ballot balls), from ballot (n.). Related: Balloted; balloting.
