SOmewhat related to above post,
but I am guessing that 200 or more years ago, many many people did not have any ID with them. There probably wasnt such a big thing. And many many people did not know how to read and write.
I would think that today, the safety of voting in many ways is probably safer than many years ago.
I know in some third world countries, where there are large amount of people who cannot read or do not have ID's, they put a symbol of the party next to the candidate so people know which party they are voting for. And they also dip their thumb in permanent blue or purple ink to mark them so that they can only vote once.