St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-11
THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Discovered In the New Election
Law After Its Trial.

The Whiteman election law had its
| frst practical trial last Tuesday. and
| although some defects were found
which should he remedied by the legis-
| iatnre this winter, the law taken as a
whole was found to be an admirable
one One of the best features is the
! part which refers to the registration of
voters Under the old law, the last day
| for registration was the Saturday inn
| mediately preceding the election, and
| consequently there was hot sufficient
time after the registration closed to as
certain whether the parties registered
were voters in the precinct or not. The
result was that thousands of Illegal
votes were cast in the cities by repeat
ers, and in one instance in this city 1876
votes were east from one number on
Washington avenue, which number
was afterwards found to be Il vacant lot
Under the new election law, with the
| registration closing one week before
election day, there is no danger
from this source, as there is
plenty of time during the week inter
vening between the last day of registra-
ton and election day, to carefully CALI
vass the precinct, and then, by colnpar-
ing the result of the canvass with the
names on the register, discover any IL
legal voters who are registered. A
great deal of complaint has been made
Oh account of the delay in voting Oh
election cay and in counting the ballots
at the close Of the polls, but this is no
fault of the election law. but is the re-
suit of having stupid and inefficient
judges of election. These judges we're
appointed by the present board of alder
fDent, and it appears like just retribn-
ton, that almost every alderman who
had anything to dc with the appoinf-
ment of election judges has been retired
from the council. Just why old men
who are not able to see by lamp light
and men who were SO stupid
that it took them often from one
to three minutes to find and to
check off the name Of voter were ap-
pointed as judges is mystery. But
when, as it happened in some pre-
cinetS, that the judges were so stupid
that they were unable to distribute the
ballots in the different boxes without
| help from outside parties, and when
entire election tickets were thrown out
because a name had been scratched off
| and another one written in its place, it
|. appears as though some of them must
| have been appointed for the purpose OF
| bringing the election law into disrepute.
| With such men in charge no machinery
could cause an election to progress
| Smoothly and expeditiously. One of
| the most imperative changes which
should be maze in the law Is the time
for opening and closing the polls. Vot-
| ing should commence at q O'Clock in
| the morning and the polls should close
at 3 O'Clock in the afternoon, as was
provided in the original Whiteman
| bill, but which was amended at
the instance of a prominent Republican
! from Minneapolis who tried to defeat
| the bill by lacking on the idiotic provi-
| sion that the polls should not be open
until 9 O'clock in the morning and
should remain open until O'Clock in
| the evening. There would then be an
| opportunity to count the vote at an
| early hour, while men of all conditions
and occupations could find a time dur
| ing the day suitable to their convent
ence in voting. There IS need, too, of a
| law relating to the printing of the bal
| lots. Ali ballots should be printed by
| the state and it should be made final
! offense to distribute split ticket and
| all pastors should be printed Oh pink
| paper so that the attention of both the
| voter and the election judges would be
| called to the fact that the ticket had
| been scratched. With these changes
and with the added familiarity of ex-
| perience the new election law cannot
| but give satisfaction to ali honest
VoterS.