The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-06-02
How Votes are COunted in Paris.

The correspondent of the London Tele-
graph thus minutely describes the method of
making up the election returns in Paris:
"Paris is divided into twenty arrondisse-
mems, and in each of these larger divisions
are the various sections, varying from ten to
twenty, where voting could be carried on. In
the department cf Il e Seine-which, by the
by, includes very little more than the city of
Paris-there were three hundred and twenty
OF these so-called sections. The voting lasted
from six O'clock in the morning till six p. NJ.
and the procedure was invariably the same at
every section all through the day. In the
voting room three gentlemen are seated at
table, on which square deal box is placed,
seeured by paddock, and having hole like
that of money box. At a side table close
by sits fourth individual, who has long lists
spread out before him. To this last official
each elector exhibits his card, attesting his
right to vote; he then his name having
been note., passes on to the other table, slips
his bulletin into the box, and his euty is
done. The voting room-generally the largest
apartment in the Marie, or other building ap-
pointed for the purpose-is open to everybody
For my own part, at oil events, / walked in
to great many, bringing home my pockets
full of bulletins which had been forced upon
me. and nobody once asked me question. /
happened to be at the Marie in the hotel
Drouot, at six o'clock, the hour fixed for the
opening of the ballot boxes, and was thus
enabled to watch the whole process of sorting
the tickets. The arrangement was begun IN
this wise. A balloting box having been op-
ened, and turned upside down, cordn populo
to show that no tickets had been left inside,
sorter No takes up one folded paper from
the heap before him, opening it fat, and pas
es it to his neighbor. who, as soon as he has
ten together unscrted, passes the little bun
Il M a..
the tickets, pins the ten together, and trans
fers them to sorter No. A, who, when he has
got ten oi these bundles, or OF hundred tick
cts in all, puts chem Inside large envelope,
which he hands to the president; and hap
pened to be next to one table, and / can cert-
ty to the scrupulous care exhibited by all con-
cerned in the counting. This process finished
| it was announced that two thousand two
hundred and thirty-six papers had been col
lected. representing that number of voters
out of Two thousand eight hundred inscribed
The president stated, however, that the mum
ber of persons who had voted was two thous-
and two hundr d and twenty-five, although
two thousand two hundred and thirty-six
bulletins had been counted, adding that the
error VIC uld certainly be discovered in the
process of sorting. He then begged any four
gentlemen in the room to seat themselves at
each OF the tab es. Two of the sorters at
each table had before them a printed form,
headed 'Depouillement des votes and mark
ed with dots, arranged in lines of ten each
line being denored by its corresponding num-
ber. Another gentleman, opening one of the
envelopes of one hundred tickets, took out
bundle of ten and slowly read out the names
written on each bulletin. His companions
writing the name of each candidate above a
column, marked dot every time the name
was called; while amateur serter No. ar
ran ed the bulletins according to candidates
Errors were all but impossibi'ities, and the
discrepancy alluded to by the chairman was
discovered in the very first bundle opened.
The room was crowded; yet so intent was ev-
eryb 2dy on business that there was 10 noise.
Indeed, the lamps with green shades on every
table, the quiet, seripus-looking galerie of ov-
erlookers round each, the huissiers gliding
noiselessly about, and the monotonous voices
OF the tellers, as unchanging as though they
were croupiers, reminded me irresistibly OF a
gambling house. At times question arose.
For instance. one elector had written Carl
baldi on his bulletin, and another Napoleon
IV.-on whica. latter incident the president
remarked that the prince was not OF age
Usually however, there was nothing TO dis
turb the monotony of the slow iteration of
Remusat Remusat! Barodet! with an occa-
sional Stoffel'