The Press., 1889-12-05
(Spriilgfeld Republican.) MASSACHUSETTS, BALLOT LAW.

After election talk against the new bal lot law, based upon the number of errors discovered in recounts, Is now fully in- dulged in by the politicians, who are en- ragged at the injury to their occupation, and al>o by many others who have no such excuse for hasty spet oh. The defects and the errors of all sorts that have been man. ifest in this first trial of the system are not such as make against its essential merits or it's entire practicability. In fact there are but two points of real consequence to be noted. One is the slowness of the counting, which can easily be remedied by a provIsion that the ballots shall Do count ed every hour. Let there be also, if you please, a severe penalty for disclosing the state of the poll. The conditions of the polling places under the new system allow of this hourly counting being done in such manner as shall preserve the state of the poll from publicity until the close of the voting, which was not possible when the prohibition of such counting was place d on the statute book. It was the difficulty of getting the ballots counted in any reas- onable time which led to the lateness of the returns and also to the maj ,rity of the errors made.
 One other cause of error was the re- quirement of the law that the cross for the lcandidate tosbe voted for should be placed | in the blank square after the designation of the party. Many voters placed tue cross after the name of the candidate, and in the It counts these crosses were, so far as we learn, properly counted for the men for whom they were unmistakably inteLd ed. The requirement is not without reas on, for it would tighten the libor of the fo hou., tho al, fyof ho same place, just as it lightens the labors of the post office clerks to have the postage stamp onthe right-hand upper corner of the envelopes; but even as the letter whose stamp goes into the wrong corner is never theless mailed, so the ballot with the Ks in the wrong place should be counted The facts that a considerable number of ballots were placed in the boxes without Q mark on them or marked only as to the | first name, does not make against the law at all. These ballots were cast by voters who had not cared to learn the peri, ctly simple direction of the law, or who do not know enough to understand them it is also true, no doubt, that the wretched type used in the ballots this year prevent ed some voters of weak eyesight or too little patience from going through the list. For | these last, the use of bold, easily read type will furnish simple remedy; and, as for the rest, the new law will not be injured in the estimation of the majority in this tonnonwealth if it proves to serve an e9- ucational test A man with too little ir. teMigence to mark his ballotswith an X for every candidate he wants to vote for is not fit to vote at all.
 The cancellations necessary to make the Australian ballc system work 'to charm are thus very slight, and the people so thoroughly appreciate and delight in the new order of things that has been estab- lished at the polls that they will not suffer any assault on the system to come within gunshot of success.