Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-05-02
BALLOT REFORM.
THE LATEST DEVICE FOR INsURING
HONEST ELECTIONS.

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HONEST ELECTIONS.
A letter to the New York EUening
Post thus describes the vote-recording
machine the adoption of which is pro
posed by bill pending in the Minneso-
ia Legislature: This machine is the in
vention of Mr.. J. W. Rhines, of st. Paul.
1t seems to combine all the virtues of
the Australian system with number of
other good points. The ordinary paging
machine of the printer suggested the
main idea to Mr.. Rhines. The principle
involved is that of the counting ma
chine, as in the odometer. 1t is old,
time-tried, and absolutely accurate.
The practical machine is an Oblong
brass box about 10x14 inches, six inch
es deep, with hinged cover. This box
is placed on a small stand in the rear
of the polling room, and in plain sight
of the judges and clerks of election
The voter is identified by the judges,
and passes into the stall where the ma
chine is. On raising the lid of the box,
a screen is drawn before the stall, shut
ting both voter and machine from view.
The lid when raised discloses a number
of keys not unlike organ stops. There
are as many rows of keys as there are
tickets in the field, and as many keys in
row as there are offices to be filled.
The printed name of each candidate,
and the Office to which he aspires, are
placed on the top of these keys.
The elector in voting presses down
the key bearing the name of the candi-
date he wishes to support. The key re-
mains down. In being depressed it has
locked all the keys of other candidates
to the same office, thus making it impOS-
sible for an electOr to vote for more than
one candidate to the same office; at the
same time this key has imprinted indel
IDLY, on slip of paper beneath, num-
ber-which is the total vote cast for that
candidate at that time. The elector
votes for each of the other offices in
the same way, shuts down the lid of the
box, thus ringing an alarm bell and
dropping the screen in front, exposing
machine and voter to the view of the
judges. The box lid on being closed,
liberates all the keys, and the machine
is ready for the next voter.
When the last elector has voted, the
count is already made and recorded for !
each candidate. The turnstile at the |
judges desk has recorded the total num-
Der of voters. The slip of paper bearing
the cord of the vote can be most easily |
preserved.
This system assures absolute secrecy |
of ballot and absolute accuracy of count. |
1t requires a sort of educational qualifi- |
cation, in that the keys must be read; |
and yet there is an ingenious scheme al |
ready proposed, that all Republican keys
be colored red, all Democratic keys |
white, ETC.; so that an elector could vote
any straight ticket he chose, and be re-
lieved from all intellectual exertion fur
ther than distinguishing between two
colors! 1t saves the expense of print
ing ballots, and better than this, it does
away with the tedious and inaccurate
counting of paper ballots; as conse-
quence of this, contested elections will
be thing of the past.
Absolute secrecy being assured, bri-
berry at elections will be dealt a most
telling blow, for the bribeT can be no
longer sure of his purchase,