1892 was the first election where all states moved to a secret ballot. The effect of the secret ballot was that voting turnout began to fall. 1888 was a pinnacle of voter turnout with 80% and from that point there began a slow steady decline. The question is why. It was mainly because with the open ballot the parties did all they could to get out voters, basically turned voting day into a massive party. They knew who would vote for them, often times even provided a filled-out ballot. Yet with the secret ballot there was no guarantee of who people would vote for, so the parties stopped getting people to the polls.
Historically Speaking 