Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-18
DETECTING TO A REFORM SYSTEM.

0BJECTING TO A REFORM SYSTEM.
The San Francisco Chronicle says the
Australian ballot system did not work to
perfection in Montana, and it therefore
concludes that it would not be well to sub.
stitute it for the California system, "under
which every man can vote as he chooses
That is conclusion not justified by ex-
perience. With the crowding around the
polls promoted by the vicious class of poll
ticians good many citizens are unable to
vote at all. Nor is it true that under the
California system the man and voter can
vote as he chooses at all times, since it is
well know that men are sent to the polls
with tickets prepared for them, and such a
close watch is kept upon them that there
is no opportunity to change the ballot for
that the voter may really wish to cast.
Suppose it is true that in one Montana
precinct there were 173 ballots cast on
which the names of all the candidates APP
peared, the voters having failed to indi-
cate by the required marking whom they
wished tailed. That is not surprising in
the initial effort to introduce a new sys-
TEN. We remember when the California
plan was first introduced, that equally as
stupid blnnders were made by voters. In
deed, in very recent election in this city,
where two propositions were named on the
ticket and the voters were asked to indi-
cate their preference by marking out one
or the other, several hundred ballots went
into the BOXES wICnUut any nIaI1AIn5 WIN.
ever. There arose in consequence the
legal question whether these ballots were
to be counted in the whole number in Or
der to ascertain if two-thirds had voted for
the proposition. 1t was finally held, and
properly, that the ballots were to be con-
- ;dered blanks, and not to be estimated in
the proposition referred to- In every cleo
ton in California there are many ballots
cast In which all the names for some offices
are scratched of, the electors refusing to
vote for any of the men nominated. At
every Presidential election in this State
there are many ballots cast with all the
Presidential Electors names marked off. 1t
is by no means certain, therefore, that the
17S ballots referred to by the Chronicle
were mistakes, or the result of misunder-
standing of the system of printing all the
names of the candidates upon the ballot
the electors may have, or a goodly por-
ton of them, purposely cast their ballots
blank.
Our contemporary states as an objec-
ton, that it required five days to make
the count in Montana, and that it then
developed that only an official count could
give the exact result. How was it in San
Francisco last fall? Did not precisely
such situation develop in that city then,
and was it not many weeks before it was
settled by an official recount who were
chosen for Congressional and other sta
tions? Now if anything is certain about
an election this is, that under the Austria
liam system "stufingp the ballot-box is all
but impossible; that virtue goes a long
way to commend the system. Another
good in it, as modified, is that it is impos-
sible for any one to dictate to the voter
how he shall vote, since he cannot cast his
vote until he has retired to booth alone,
and from that booth he must return direct
to the ballot-box. We have yet to hear of
human being who has objected to such
a regulation, and in all the States where
it has been adopted, it has met with the
favor of all men except vote brokers and
baliot-box suffers. The entry of the
names of all candidates upon the electors
ballot is wise, for it enables the poor man,
the convention-rejected man, the whitfield
OUT candidate, the man obnoxious to
to rings and cliques, to present his claims
to the voters. The printing of the ballots
by the State is wise, because it eliminates
the ticket peddler and secures perfect uni
formity in the ballots, and therefore per-
feet secrecy Of the ballot, an end that is the
purpose of all election laws, and that lies
at the root of manhood suffrage. The is
suance of the ballot to the elector by the
Election Board guarantees the latter
against fraudulent ballots, and at the same
time absolutely precludes stufing of the
boxes such as has disgraced the election
in San Francisco; it also prevents the
possibility, as near as human precau-
ton can devise, of alteration of the ballots
by vicious election officers. The aggregate
of ballots issued must correspond with the
number in the box and those unissued,
and the number in the box must cor
respond with the stubs in the book Of bal
lots receipted for by the Election Board.
In short, under the system proposed to the
last Legislature, fraud would be possible
only by conspiracy of all the judges, in
spectors and clerks in Precinct Board.
We have objected to the clause in the
Australian law that requires the electors
ballot to be numbered to correspond with
his number on the poll list, since that must
reveal the ballot to whoever examines the
contents of the box. So, too, the PROPOSE
ton of the Federated Trades, that the
Judges of Election should lndorse their
names on each ballot as east, was shown by