The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1880-02-04
THE PRESIDENTIAL, COUNT.

Az ID we'll known to the general public the
electesal systeln Of choosing Presidents al
lows each State number Of electors equal to
its whole number Of Senators and Req
reeeH,tatives In Congress-. the electors are
chosen In each State In such manner as its
Legislature may direct, and ny q ge,earal
understandings the electors perform only
ministerial duties, Hence the political party
which may % able to choose the electors, by
even plurality III the popular vote, counts
the entire electoral vote of the State Under
the electoral ay-stam Presidents have been
chosen since the first election Of Washington
In 17s9; but to guard against another such
orisis as was presented by the tie vote be
tween jefferson and Burt In 1901, the sys-
tern was amended 90 az to require electors to
vote in separate ballots for President and
Vice Presdelt It seems clear to our
mind that the original design Of the
trainers Of the constitution was that electors
should exercise some dissection and iudg-
ment i'm the choice of the President: but that
design was departed from to greater OF less
extent until 1920. since which time except
upon one OF two occesieus. and then only In a
few instances. the dominant party In each
state he's counted the entire vote, This rrac
tioe Of voting in soidc has led to many In
onnRruo,ls results, and In 1857 brought the
country to the verge Of anarchy That some
amendment to the constitution was necessary
tn nhviatn any such considerations in the fu
ture seemed apparent to every thoughtful
mind, and accordingly. early In 1877 Angus
f,. n ip,,r tor thor, u
citizen If Arkansas, but now residing
In this city, prepared. under the
title of The True Method E)uf
Electlng the President" etc. volume review
Ing the electoral syaten,, the Ruekalew plan
and the popular vote theory. and at the same
time submitting plan which he called The
True Method" and explaining Its purposes
The True Method follows the electoral syatem
only ao far aa to allow each State nunher Of
votes for President equal to all Its Senators
and Representatives In Congress. but Instead
Of allowing the dominant party In State to
control all ,ts votes for President, every per
con voted for Ia tn have the came proportion
81 the presidential vote az he receives uf the
popular vote, three doclmals to he usel In
the fraction of a vote received.
To illustrate. let us apply the electoral system
and the True Method. respectively. to the vote
Of Louisiana for Governor last fall. assuming
that Mr. Witt and Mr. Raattie had been np-
posing candidates for the Presidency. The
vote for Witt was 72elo. for Rsattle, Al 400.
total, 11loIo
Lnui aiana has eight votes for President
and under the electoral system MIR. Wits.
who received the highest number of votes.
would have received the whole number. But
not 60 under the method prepared by Air.
Jones. aud embodied In a memorial of that
gentleman. which was submitted ID the Sen
ate by Mr.. Garland and 60 the House by Mr..
lravtna at the extra session Of Congress IN
october, 1877. and which is low under consId- |
,ration In the House The True Method pro-
giea that each State shall have number of
presidential votes equal to ita Senators and
In Congress. that the people
shall vote directly for President. and that the
proportion Of eaci, person's presidential vote
shal be ascertained hy multiplying his
popular vote by the States electoral
vote and dividing tho product by the
.otaI popular vote " the State Apply |
ng the True Method To the vote for
Governor u Louisiana last fall we should
multiply the vote for Mr. Wilt ~ G1ol by the
state electoral vote la,. which would give $50
'ao Divide this by the whole vote of the State
ia. LOW and the result would show ! 0p2 votes
Ut Witt, In the same manner the portion
q which Mr.. l'eattie was entitled would he a.
'ertaned. To give q practical illustration of
he workings Of both the electoral aystem and
~. 4.
tatement, showing what the result would
ave been under each system IN each State,
asing our calculation upon the last State
lections, aud assuming that the votes given
lad been cast for presidential electors: