The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1889-11-21

Now that the elections are over and
the great mass OF the people are recon-
ciled to the result, It certainly is appro-
pirate that any measure that will tend to
prevent corruption at the polls should
receive the attention OF the public press.
The object at this time in calling the
attention Of an intelligent and reading
public to the best method Of suppressing
the purchasing of votes by corrupt poll.
ticians Is not to call out sympathy for
defeated Republicans nor to invoke con.
demnation on triumphant Democrats,
bat to aid in maintaining the corner.
stone Of all republics--free and fair elec.
tions.
Much has been said through the pub.
lie press in reference to the Australian
system of balloting. We clip the follow.
ing account Of that system which was in
use at the late elections in Massachusetts
and Montana from the New York Trib.
une:
Twice this year has the Australian
system OF voting been put into operation
in an American election under circum.
stances which have fully tested its effic.
iency as . means Of procuring from the
voters full and fair expression of their
will. These great experiments obviate
the necessity, in judging of the systems
value to honest government, of any
further reference ~ the minor ones in
Connecticut, Ttiilrssee and Kentucky.
The system has now been tested in two
great State contests, where public inter-
est was profoundly stirred, and under
every possible social condition. Massa
chusetts is an old State, Montana a new
one. Massachusetts, is a small State,
Montana very large one. Massachu.
sets contains two and half millions of
people confined within $500 square
miles, Montana contains only 100000
people scattered over $4,000 square
miles. The people of Massachusetts are
settled, steady, and undergoing only the
ordinary changes incident to birth, death
and human progress. The population
OF Montana is shifting with every wind
OF adventure, growing enormously with
each incoming train. Certainly, none
could ask that the system should be
more hardly tried.
AS system it has only one motive.
|
ballot in the fear of nothing and no one,
save only his own judgment and con-
science. Its opponents have tired of
denying that it accomplishes its object.
That it does, as a matter of fact, render
the ballot absolutely secret is impossible
OF further denial. Tho voter enters a
polling.plaoe which contains no one ex.
cept the judges of election and their
clerks. He receives from them printed
slip upon which are printed all the
names of all the candidates in nomina.
ton. With it he retires into stall and
marks an X opposite the names OF all
those for whom he wishes to vote. He
folds his ballot. comes out from the stall
and drops his folded ticket into the box.
1t is physical impossibility that any
eye but bis own should see, or any hand
but his own should touch, the slip oi
paper on which his will as freeman is
recorded, and this much, at last, the
enemies of the reform concede.
But they still pretend to believe that
it is cumbersome and complicated that
; it requires too much OF mental opera
ton upon the part of the voter and toe
long time for the depositing OF the vote
of given precinct. All this pretence
must now be abandoned. In Massachu.
sets and in Montana both, it has been
. found upon the first trial to be simple
plain, easy and quick OF operation, mex
pensive and satisfactory to every honest
voter. Nobody objects to it but those
who desire to cheat. In Montana the
system received the severest test imagin.
able. 1t was coupled with a registra
{ ton law that applied to the whole State
to country and city alike. Every
voter had to he registered, and many, to
complete their act of suffrage, were
, obliged twice to travel from five to &
hundred miles. The system was the
with their populations of $4,000, as il
, larger than the State of New Jersey
with scarcely 1000 voters throughou
their whole expanse.
And yet, the testimony of everybody
everywhere in these two States is tina
, the system in practice was all that coulG
. be desired. 1t is true that charges o
fraud are heard from Montana, but the
law does not claim to purify human
nature, nor to render the land in which
it operates straightway place of heav.
emily perfection. 1t merely claims to re
duce to the minimum the chances o.
electoral miscarriages. It does moi
} promise to convert bad heart into 9
good heart, but merely to place all the
obstacles possible in the way of the bad
neart to prevent the success of it's under.
takings. So much as it promises, it wei
, performs, and the spectacle presented in
this country to-day by the two politica
parties admits of only one Interpretation
Everywhere we see the Republican
; party struggling to establish the reform
! Everywhere we see the Democracy iT
opposition. The Republican party de-
mands that no one shall be allowed tC
vote who has not a legal right to vote
that every one who has that right shall
be allowed to exercise it freely, and thai
in exercising it he shall be projected
, from coercion, menace and bribery. Tt
these demands the Democratic party
says "No"
Mothers. do not fail to call at the New