Lot also played a part in comitia tributa, though less is known
about how it operated there. In such assemblies, lot was used
differently depending on whether the meeting was passing laws or
trying cases on the one hand, or electing the lower magistrates on
the other. At legislative or judicial meetings of the comitia tributa, the
tribes voted one after another. It was therefore necessary to determine
which tribe should vote first. The others would vote in a fixed
sequence (ordo tribuum), about which little seems to be known
except that it was not hierarchical. Lot in fact determined at which
the point in the ordo tribuum voting should begin. The tribe voting
first was identified by a particular term (principium) and was in a
way the equivalent of the prerogative century in centuriate assemblies.
18 The result of each tribe's vote was announced soon after it
had finished voting, but while the others were still casting their
votes. Balloting halted as soon as a bill or verdict had been decided
upon by a majority of tribes (i.e. eighteen votes, since there were
thirty-five tribes). Consequently, for legislative and judicial votes in
the tribal assemblies, the use of lot must have produced the same
effects as in centuriate assemblies: the religious quality and neutrality
of lot encouraged voting to crystallize around the first vote while making it easier for the tribes that had not been balloted to
accept the result. However, unlike the outcome of the centuriate
assemblies, in this case the cohesive effect did not redound to the
benefit of any particular class