Uso transitivo del verbo "votare" in senso elettorale

Question

Alcuni dizionari riportano il verbo votare, nella sua accezione più comune, quella che si riferisce all'esprimere preferenza elettorale per un partito o per un candidato, sia come transitivo che come intransitivo.

Per esempio, il dizionario del Corriere della Sera afferma che sia corretto dire:

Io voto per il candidato x;

e anche

Io voto il candidato x.

Il vocabolario Treccani non riporta esplicitamente esempi nella direzione della seconda frase qui citata, usando invece, nel senso specificato, solo la frase con preposizione.

Vorrei sapere se l'uso di votare così come è indicato nella seconda frase è di nuova fattura (un uso di recente accettazione), se le due forme siano equivalenti, e in quale misura o contesto.

Answer 1

The oldest vocabulary I have on hand, a 1948 Zingarelli, gives as a definition “Dare il voto” (hinting at the intransitive use) as well as “Approvare col suo voto” (hinting at the transitive one) and records transitive uses, such as “la lista del blocco ... la proposta”, but I guess the use is not much older.

Following the idea by Sklivvz, a search on Ngram viewer for “votare per un candidato” vs. “votare un candidato” suggests that the transitive form is more recent, with almost no results before WWII, while the intransitive one was well in use in the 1850s.

Finally, in the Vocabolario della Crusca, “votare” only appears (as variant of “botare”) in the meaning of “to vow” (and, of course, the homograph “votare” meaning “to empty” also appears).

Answer 2

"Votare" derives from "promettere con voto" where "voto" has the original meaning of "solemn promise" (cf. "voto del silenzio", "devoto") and comes from the Latin "vovère" (cf. "to vow for").

The original meaning is mostly used with the reflexive form of the verb "votarsi", to (de)vote oneself, and this also makes it evident that a transitive form of the verb is acceptable and of old origin.

More interesting is to see if the intransitive form is a later way of using the verb. An ngram for "votare per" is not different enough from "votare" to draw any conclusions, although it shows a slighty earlier start for the verb in general in comparison with the "per" form. What is more interesting is that the usage of either form has become much more common since the Risorgimento in the 1850's.

On the other hand "votare un" vs. "votare per un" also show very similar ngrams. I think that all we can deduce is that the transitive form is more commonly used, but I don't think there's enough difference to support they hypothesis that one is more recent than the other.

Answer 3

Just for reference, check this image search: https://www.google.it/search?q=volantino+1948+vota&tbm=isch Apparently, most leaflets for the 1948 elections were using the transitive form.

There is also another form that "sounds transitive" while it's not, like Vota comunista or Vota liberale, in which "comunista" and "liberale" are used as a sort of adverb. It's like Vesti giovane and similar commercial slogans. In English, you have Think pink.