Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-18
THE CONDITION OF BALLOT REFORM
AGITATION,


Whoever hes witnessed the crowding of /
people about polling places, and noted the |
fact that it tends to repuise voFeTs and en-
courage fraudulent voting. must regret that
the bsilot reform bill failed in the Legis-
lature this year. That bill, had it become
a law, would have eliminated the ticket
peddler and solicitor, have insured wide,
clear space between the polling booth and
the voter at the time when in privacy he
prepared his ballot, and have left the space
free for him TO walk through when return
ing to cast his ballot, provided for him by
the State.
In Kentucky the law applies as yet to
cities only, but will certainly be adopted
generally i.a the State. There the voting
compartments are entirely iuclosed, and
the voter must shut the door while pre-
pairing his ballot. While in the cempart-
ment, he folds the ballot and puts it in am
envelope. Any blind voter is accompanied
to one of the compartments by clerk,
who msrks the ballot at his dictatien and
places the word blind on the stub of the
ballot-book under the voters name. Be-
sides the election officers, one agent of each
candidate, previously named in writing. is
allowed in the room. These agents have
the right to challenge persons offering to
vote, but are not allowed to electioneer. nor
to go forward and backward between the
polls and those awaiting their turn The
voting places are SO arranged as to leavea
clear space of fifty feet between the room
or Enclosure in which the voting is done
and those awaiting their turn. The regu-
lation desired here differs from this only in
detail.
Now while we must do without this
essential to secrecy and freedom Of the
ballet, for two years more, it is not
an hour too early to begin to urge the
question of ballot reform upon the peo-
pie. Had the matter been more freely
discussed during the past two years, we
are confident that the reception of The
ballot measure by the Legislature would
have been very different. 1t is prob
able that the legislators fairly represented
the intelligence of their constituents upon
this subject, for the latter had not ex-
amlned into the new proposition; it was
not laid before them in an orderly manner
until the Young Mems Democratic League
OF San Francisco took hold OF it and
whipped it into shape, late in the legisla-
tive session. In fact, the people of Cali
'fornia have learned of the proposed reform
and what is promised for it, only from re-
cent fugitive papers, and ESSAYS, and cir
culsrs, some of them with drafts of ballot
bills that were so fatally defective, the press
feel it to be duty to denounee them as
dangerous.
But now that the subject matter
has had legislative attention, and now
that it has been demonstrated that
il was not understood, it is a duty of the
friends of the reform to diligently press the
subject upon the attention of the people,
and so educate the public mind upon it,
that two years hence the Legislature will
come up instructed by the people and in
telligent upon the proposition
In the interim two elections will be
held under similar ballot laws to that of
the League" in Louisville, KY three in
the cities of Wisconsin having more
than $4,000 population; and two State cleo
tons in Massachusetts,. We will thus have
opportunity to observe the working of
the new system, and the results ought to
be industriously presented TO the people
by the press. For it has been found by ex-
perience that the most direct and certain
method of securing needed legislation in
this State on subjects involving radical re-
forms, is to begin with the people full two
years before the Legislature is chosen. The
codihcation of our statutes, the system of
State school books, the establishment of an
independent Department of State Printing.
the founding Of Juvenile Reformatory.
the appointment of Pathological Com
mission, and very many other wise steps
were secured by such patient taking of
time by very long forelock: indeed, very
few of the advance steps taken by the
State were originated during the legislative
term in which ordered-some have been.
butnone of the Importance of ballot reform.
Let the press friendly to that reform renew
the debate upon it now, and apply the ex-
perience of Massachusetts, Kentucky and
Wisconsin, from month to month, as it de.
velops,to the proper education of the public
thought in California.
THE LFGISTATURE