The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-09-15
TGwN ELECTION DISTRICTS.

We have been considering tor two or
three days the necessity of a change in our
election laws, and referring to some of the
alterations which were suggested to our
mind. We take it for granted that the OBJ
ject of elections, aside from the mere
choice of officers, is TO obtain the free and
unbiased expression of the popular voice
In reference to who shall be said officers,
and that the fuller the vote so much the
nearer we get to that expression. We
believe that we established, Saturday,
two propositions, namely that all Officers
ought to be elected by plurality, not
majority, of the votes cast, and that the
nearer the ballot box was TO the residence
OF the voter, the more apt the voter would
be to vote. In that illustration we suggest
ed, without directly advocating it, the
placing of ballot boxes in every school dis
trict, because they were political divisions
already fixed, but the division OF the larger
towns into election districts would answer
the same purpose, and follow the course
pursued by some other states. AS we said,
there are objections to this course as well
as advantages, but, as we propose to pre-
sent both sides of the question: let us first
consider, as fully and fairly as may be, the
arguments and reasons which can be alb
duced in favor of placing ballot boxes in
different parts of the town, in charge of
proper officers, additional to those pre-
sented Saturday.
First, we may say that there would be
less danger of the names of illegal voters
finding their way on the check list. In
town of the size of this, with the large
number of voters therein, it is impossible
to keep off from the check list the names
of illegal voters, if anyone should see fit to
place such names thereon and with the
list posted in "t'oo or more public places
as the law now requires, only the merest
accident could detect their presence. In
deed, with a voting population of over two
thousand, no man could tell whether one
hundred or more of the names placed on
the list were those of legal or illegal voters.
There is nothing in the list as now made.
or in the law requiring it to be made, by
which the residence of the voter is desig-
mated. The name of John Smith may ap-
pear on the list, but as the school district
where he resides OF anything else to desig-
nate the locality of his abode is not stated,
how can anyone tell whether he is voter
or not ? That man does not live who
knows even the name of every male resi-
dent of Rutland, to say nothing of his
possessing the requisite voting qualiflca-
tions. In limited district, it would be
different We venture to say that every
resident of given school district knows
every other resident and his probable age
In any event, in limited district these
facts could and would be ascertained with
ease. So much for this argument.
The object of the check list is, of course
TO prevent illegal voting. This object is
supposed to be attained by the registering
of the names of all who claim the right to
vote, or who are supposed to have such
iiBut, anu posting suCl lIst III TWO or more
public places" SO that all may have an OPP
portunity to inspect the same, and, as the
result of such inspection, other names may
be added thereto and the names of those
not entitled to vote may be erased there
from. We have already shown that this is
not attained under the present system. A
certain class of persons, however, have al
ways objected to the use of check list as
an infringement on the right of suffrage,
because it takes so much of the time of the
voter to register his name or ascertain il his
name is properly registered. So much at
tention has been paid to this complaint that
the list has. in great measure, been made
up from guess work AS we showed in a
former article, the statement of man has
been taken for the fact that ten, twenty,
fifty or an hundred men were voters and,
on this statement, their names have been
added to the list. Once there, they re-
manned there unless some one happened to
remember that they were dead or removed