So there's a couple details on how conscription worked that I'm fuzzy about. I know the Lottery was introduced in 1969 so that it at least seemed more fair, but what was the system before that?

It resembled somewhat the system used after late 1942 during World War II, with each local board using an inventory of its classified registrants eligible for military service (i.e., those not deferred for dependency or occupation or otherwise exempt from military service) and an order in which they were to be called for military service determined by laws or executive orders or the regulations of the Selective Service system, in order to meet the needs of the armed forces, rather than the nationwide lottery used prior to late 1942.

I curated a website as part of a college class project which detailed in particular the system of conscription used before the lottery which was established in 1969. I will copy-paste the answer that utilized it below. The draft had been in effect since June 1948, with inductions beginning in November. Inductions were suspended from February 1949 until September 1950, due to the number of voluntary enlistments being sufficient to meet the needs of the military. Until the early 1960s, the number of inductions per month was relatively small.

President Harry S. Truman's Executive Order No. 9988 of August 20, 1948 and Executive Order No. 10001 of September 17, 1948 prescribed portions of the Selective Service regulations. After men had registered with their local draft board as soon as possible after attaining the age of eighteen years, their local draft board was to mail those men who had attained the age of nineteen years an SSS Form 100, or Classification Questionnaire, except in cases where men could be classified properly without this form. Men could substantiate their status as a conscientious objector by filling out an SSS Form 150. If a man classified as available for military service believed himself to actually suffer from a condition that disqualified him, he could request a medical interview.

Periodically, state Directors of Selective Service would order their local draft boards to supply numbers of registrants found qualified for military service to specific locations to be given Armed Forces Physical Examinations. If a man passed the examination, he would be given an NME Form 62, or Certificate of Acceptability. After a requisition was submitted by the Department of Defense to the national Director of Selective Service, he would issue to each state Director an SSS Form 200 (Notice of Call on State). The state Director would then issue to each of his local draft boards an SSS Form 201 (Notice of Call on Local Board). After receiving the form, each local draft board would select available men to be mailed an Order to Report for Induction (SSS Form 252). The men selected were to be those that the board had mailed a Certificate of Acceptability not less than twenty-one days prior to the date on which they were to be inducted. The date of induction was to be no less than ten days after the Order to Report for Induction was mailed.

Executive Order No. 10001 amended the Selective Service regulations to provide for the selection of eligible registrants by their dates of birth, with the oldest being selected first. Men who had

• A wife, child or children, and/or

• A person dependent upon them for support (to include a wife, child, or children) that an induction would cause hardship to

were entitled to be deferred in Class III-A. Paragraph (b) of section 622.15 defined a "child" as a legitimate or illegitimate biological child from the date of its conception, a stepchild, a legally adopted child, a foster child, or any person in the relationship of child to the registrant, provided that they were under the age of 18 unless they were physically or mentally handicapped. Paragraph (c) of the section defined a dependent as a wife, divorced wife, child, parent, grandparent, brother, or sister. Also defined as a "dependent" was a person of any age who was physically or mentally handicapped and was supported in good faith by the registrant.

Executive Order No. 10001 defined a "delinquent" as a man who failed to comply with some portion of the Selective Service Act, the most prominent being failing to register and failing to furnish or furnishing false information. As a form of punishment, delinquents were selected and ordered to report for induction before any other registrants.

On September 25, 1951, Executive Order No. 10292 eliminated having a wife as a sole reason to be placed in Class III-A unless the man's induction would cause hardship. On July 15, 1953, Executive Order No. 10469 eliminated children in this regard as well. Some men whose induction would not cause hardship to their children were still entitled to be placed in Class III-A if they could fulfill certain conditions:

Claim paternity before August 25, 1953 by visiting their physician and obtaining a certificate which is filed with the local draft board and

• Their local draft board had not mailed them an order to report for induction on a date after which the proof of paternity certificate they obtained from their physician was placed on file with said board.

• A man could thus claim paternity when his wife was still pregnant. It was further provided that those men who could claim paternity before August 25, 1953 would be selected after all other registrants.

Public Law 84-118 of June 30, 1955 amended the Universal Military Training and Service Act to extend the liability of registrants who were members of the reserve components of the armed forces until the age of twenty-eight. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Executive Order No. 10659 of February 15, 1956 amended the Selective Service regulations to incorporate these provisions, as well as a provision that single men and married men without children would, in selecting and ordering them to report for induction, be considered a single group.

It also prescribed a new order of selection, which would be used until March 1963. It corrected a major deficiency in the order used before February 15, 1956. Before this date, the order had only prescribed, barring the specific changes mentioned above, that men be selected based upon their dates of birth with the oldest being selected first. As a result of the elimination of wives, and later children, as grounds for a Class III-A deferment, the sequence had resulted in draftees from the entire pool of eligibles, from the ages of eighteen years and six months to thirty-five, many of whom had wives and children. The new sequence predominantly provided the armed forces with younger draftees free of dependency concerns;

• (1) Delinquents who have attained the age of nineteen years in the order of their dates of birth with the oldest being selected first.

• (2) Volunteers who have not attained the age of twenty-six years in the sequence in which they have volunteered for induction.

• (3) Nonvolunteers who have attained the age of nineteen years and have not attained the age of twenty-six years and who do not have a child or children with whom they maintain a bona fide family relationship in their homes, in the order of their dates of birth with the oldest being selected first.

• (4) Nonvolunteers who have attained the age of nineteen years and have not attained the age of twenty-six years and who have a child or children with whom they maintain a bona fide family relationship in their homes, in the order of their dates of birth with the oldest being selected first.

• (5) Nonvolunteers who have attained the age of twenty-six years in the order of their dates of birth with the youngest being selected first.

• (6) Nonvolunteers who have attained the age of eighteen years and six months and who have not attained the age of nineteen years in the order of their dates of birth with the oldest being selected first.