Career
Ivins was one of New York City"s famous reformers working on the improvement of the election law and fighting the widespread election fraud in New York City. He was the president of the Executive Committee of the Electoral Laws Improvement Association. Together with reformers like Albert South. Bard or William East. Curtis he tried to complete the introduction of the secret ballot (Australian Ballot) to fight corruption.
Ivins is the author of Machine Politics and Money in Elections in New York City.
New York 1887. Ivins was the father of William Mills Ivins, Junior., curator of the department of prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New New York