The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-17 00:00:00

THE BALLOT IN AMEUICA.

(From the Anglo-American Tones)
An American in Fraser's Magazine for this month
forcibly and truly describes how the ballot is made
to work in America. Those who read that article
by Mr. MORSE will have an opportunity of correct-
ing an error generally held in England, if they be-
lieve with the masses, that voting is secret in the
United States because the people there use the bal-
lot. What it does is to enable the individual, if he
wishes it, to keep his vote a secret; but it is against
the idioscyncrasy of the people to vote in secret. So
little is secret voting practised in the States that a
mah becomes marked, —an odd, a mysterious, a sus-
picious character,—who habitually conceals his vote ;
and so well do those who have made a profession of
the subject know how each member of the com-
munity will vote, that the result of an election can
be predicted almost to a nicety. The ballot is,
then, but of little use so far as concealment goes ;
but it is of use in the sort of concealment to which
it enables a voter to resort. Supposing that an effort
be made to bribe a few voters in what is likely to
be a close contest, the briber has no guarantee
that the bribed will vote as he has been paid to do;
and in cases where a man commences by doing
what is dishonourable, be can establish but little
confidence that he will not end in the same way as
he began. In consequence, politicians know that
the attempt is useless, and that most ingenious and
enterprising individual, the office-seeker, has con-
fessed that he cannot find means to make that sort
of bribery pay. Considering what politicians have
achieved in " repeating " and " colonizing," it is
evident tlat no blame attaches to them for the
failure; the truth being that the ballot is essen-
tially a good system and weliadapted for the Re-
public. For the same reason that if it does not pay
to bribe, it would not pay to intimidate ; by em-
ployers, for instance, threatening to discharge the
employed unless they voted as directed, for the
threatened could always deceive the intimidator if
they cared to do so; but in America neither the
landowner nor the employer of labour is in a posi-
tion thus to act, fo-r, instead of being made victims,
the employed are more likely to make victims of
the employers. Although very uncommon, still in-
timidation has been used, but it has been almost
entirely confined to bullies and rowdies intercepting
voters on their way to the ballot-boxes. The two
evils are " repeating" and " colonizing," but they
are impossible except in the large cities, where frau-
dulent naturalization papers can be issued and igno-
rant foreigners be used as the tools of unscrupulous
politicians. It is only, too, in connivance with officials
that-colonizing could be practised on a scale suffi-
ciently large to make it tell. It consists simply of
despatching a body of voters from a city where they
can be spared to another where the contest will
be close, and there enrolling them on the voting
lists as residents. " Gerrymandering" is an elec-
tioneering dodge of the wirepullers, by which a
State may be so divided into election districts as to
bring out the f ull strength of the party then in power.
Thus, for instance, supposing London to be the
district " gerrymandered," say 'Westminster has an
overwhelming 'Tory strength, and Lambeth a small
Radical majority, as well as Marylebone. If the
Conservative party be in power, by throwing in
a portion of Westminster into each, they make all
three Tory, and utilize what would otherwise be a
Conservative waste in Westminster. If English
politicians could do this, and they would if they
could, they would have to borrow the American
word to describe it, and call it " gerrymandering"
London. The mode in which it is generally prac-
tised in America, differs, however, from this. Sup-
pose Kent had to be " gerrymandered ;" a careful
survey of the field being taken, it is found that
Fo'kestone, Dover, Ramsgate, and Margate up to
Canterbury, are almost svholly Conservative; there-
upon they are formed into one election district, and
the Liberal interest, which is presumed to be gerry-
mandering Kent, thereby throws out of the calcu-
lation much surplus Conservatism. If Maidstone
be strongly Radical, and the country between Maid-
stone and Canterbury be, on the whole, Conserva-
tive, while that on the other side towards
.Tunbridge
can be relied on for a Liberal majority, the coun-
try would be so " gerrymandered" that Maidstone
would be thrown into the eastern district, thereby
securing in it a majority far theparty in power, while
the western could be trusted for its own majority.
By such means the Liberal strength of Kent would
be utilized, while the Conservative strength would
be wasted, and a county which might really pos-
sess a Conservative majority would return• by far
the larger number of Liberal representatives. But
this " gerrymandering" has nothing to do with
the ballot, being only alluded to by us to show
that the politicians of America exert their brains
most effectually in the interests of t'3eir parties, and
that no scruples would prevent their availing them-
selves of any advantages, even bribing voters, if that
were possible. " Repeating" is the worst I,_rnt
of electoral fraud, as practised in such great cities
as New York and Philadelphia, where alone it is
possible ; nor could it be there practised without the
connivance of men in authority, for it is an auda-
cious imposition, and an outrage on the p_ople and
their institutions. Every district has convenient
polling-places, where the voters are received in the
alphabetical order of their names. If a man be re-
gistered at four, six, or a dozen districts and suc-
ceeds in casting his vote in each or most, he is a
repeater, and to the success which has accompanied
this operation is ascribed much of the misgovern-
ment which prevails in New York. The press has