Australia's un-doing of voter intimidation

On the occasion of US Secretary of State John Kerry trip to Australia for AUSMIN talks, I reflect upon the role of Australia in America's democracy. Meetings such as AUSMIN focus on military contributions, but I thing that the greatest contribution has been the ballot system created and made into law in Australia in 1856-7 (e.g. the Electoral Act of 1856). Adopted by all of the US by 1900, Americans even referred to the system as the “Australian ballot.” The system is what at the turn of the 19th century saved American democracy from oligarchical tyranny, at least for a while.