The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-03-13
Presidential Elections.
Mode OF Choosing the Presi5enl Of the
United states-Defecis of the Present
Mode. ..

The whole subject of electing and declaring
the election Of the President and Vice President
is now under consideration by a committee of
Congress, and the very general interest in the
matter awakened by our late electoral difficult
ties, may justify few observations on the sub.
ject from mere lay nan in legal affairs. Be-
sides the present mode several others have been
suggested, which will be considered in turn.
But what are the defects in the present mode?
The chief defect, it seems to nae, is 10 the mode
Of voting for the electors. The Constitution, as
it now stands, requires the different States to
vote for the President indirectly, through elect
ors equal in number to the number OF Senators
and Representatives 10 Congress to which the
state is entitled, and appointed in such manner
as the Legislature thereof may direct. The
mode of choosing the electors, therefore, which
ia virtually choosing the President, is left
wholly to the Legislature of each State, and in
some of the States they were formerly chosen
by ths Legislature ITSELF This may be consid-
cred as deferrng pretty largely to state rights
aud local self-government. Bat let that pass;
there is a good deal of that in the Constitution,
aud it has this advantage, that il divides the
unavoidable difficulties, and dimiuishes the
STRAIN at the vital polnts of our system, by
distributing IL among numerous subordinate
pats.
The grand defect in the present constitutional
requirement Is, that it seems to shut up the
States to choosing the electors by general
ticket; at least this has been the result in all
States. The representative electors might be
chosen separately in the representative dis
tricts, but this would not choose the senatorial
electors, which should have no district less than
the whole State. All the electors, therefore, it
would seem, must be put on the same ticket
and receive majority of this whole, thus losing
the advantage OF district msjorities, which
would distribute the electors among the differ
cot parties, instead Of leaving them all to that
party which happened to have the majority In
the whole STATE. How great the Injustice
is which is thus done, will appear from few
facts, as set forth substantially by Senator
Morton 10 1874. By tue general ticket system
the "a electors of Peuusylv anis. Ohio, Indiana
and lliinois in 1860 were all chosen on the Re
publican ticket aud cast their votes for Mr.,
LincolD, while the Democrats 10 these States
elected "a out of the 66 members of ConyIess,
and by the district system might have had that
number of electors. And the result vas
nearly the same in these States in 1864 1868,
and 1872; while in 1868 the electoral vote of
the State of New York was given 10 Mr.. Sey-
mour through his large majority in the city of
New York, though the Republicans chose IS out
of the 81 members Of Congress-, aud BY the
district system would have carried the State
for General Grant Similar results occur in
every general election. and show the present
system of voting for the President to be pal-
pably unjust aud unwise. As stated BY Seu-
ator Morton, the electoral vote, as now cast
has in some cases differed forty-two Der cent.
from the popular vote. and has never come
nearer to it than ten per cent There are other
defects in the system, but this, 1t seems to me,
Is enough to condemn il. JTC