The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1876-12-21
ELECTIyG PREslDESr.

On the very eve of the actual voting
Of the Presidential Electors the coun-
try is still unaware definitely how the
Electors will vote, or more properly
the names Of the Electors appointed
are still unknown. Mr.. Carl Schurz
with some others has addressed let-
ter to he laid before Congress, in
which il is urged that the two Houses
Of Congress az once mature an amend
ment to the Constitution and submit
il to the leg slatures of the United
States, by which the canvassing Of the
Electoral vote for Presiden: he placed
i'm the hands Of the supreme Court,
and that the amends cit be made ap-
plicable to the present election. The
gentlemen assume that Congress could
agree upon su:l, amendment without
delay. and they further assume that 1t
would be ratified by a sufficient num-
ber of the Legislatures of the several
States in time 10 apply to the can
vassing of the Electoral votes. which
now must take place before the first
week in February. We do not believe
that the country is prepared to adopt
the plan proposed by Mr.. Sehurz.
However 1t might lie acceptable as a
temporary expedien. tn bridge over an
existing difficulty. IL leaves In farce
and unchanged all the evils or the
present system. Under that amend
ment all the difficulties now existing,
as in the cases of Louisiana, Florida,
ani other states, will remain TO dis
turb and threaten the peace Of the
country.
Senator Morton has introduced hi.
plan for the election of Presidents. II
is prospective. 1t provides that each
Congressional District shall have one
vote for President. and each State two
rotes TO be given to the majority. This
.ispenses with the Electors, and al
lows each person to vote directly for
President. The person having ma
ority in each district would hive one
.ote. This rule, though better than
the present, would only add to the in
luccment OF partisan maiorities In
State Legislatures 10 40 constitute Con-
gressional Districts as TO have the
least number of votes carry the ,urga~i
number of districts. One district with
80 majority woIll give vote for
President, while in the adjoining dis
trict the opposing candidate with
10000 majority would only have one
vote. A third plan is that already ex-
plained in the Tribune, proposed 10y
Mr.. Buckalew, of Pennsylvania. that
each State have, as now, as many
,-otes for President as the number of
t. Senators and Representatives In
Congress that at thu election each
person vote direct for candidate for
President and VicePresidcnt; that
fhe whole number of votes cast for
President he aggregated by the Gov
crnor, and that this aggregate he di-
vided by the number of votes for Pres
iaent to which the State il entitled.
The ratio al each Electoral vote being
applied To the number of popular votes
in the State for each candidate, the
number to which each candidate
would be entitled would he readily as
certained and declared. In the COM
mutation. wherever there was frac-
ton greater than one-half the ratio,
the person having the fraction would
be entitled to the vote. We have al
ready given illustrations Of the effect
OF this form Of election. 1t would
revolutionize the present system by
making the vote of n State for Presi-
dent approximate Us near as possible a
fair proportion Of the popular vote.
In Iowa the Republican majority is
59,00o. and Hayes gets but the eleven
votes of that State while in New Jer-
sew Ti!den has hut 200 majority and
got the nine votes of that State. Even
a fa;rcr illustration of the operation of
this rule il in putting Kentucky and
Iowa together. The vote of the two
States ut the recent election Was as
follows:
State. Hayes. Tilden.
Kentucky 06.4l5 100, 445
Iowa III ST 1909
So