The morning news., 1889-05-21
Florida's Election Bill.

The bill pending in the Florida legisla-
ture, which provides for new registration
and election law, is evidently intended to
secure honest elections in that state. There
are some features of it, however, hat do
not appear tn be altogether admirable
| National and state elections are to be held
! on the same day, but the boxes for national
candidates are to be separate from those
for state candidates Two sets of election
officers will therefore be necessary, and the
expense Of an electi will be double what
it would be if there were but one votisg
place in each election precinct. However,
there are very good reasons for having the
ballots fer state candidates and those for
national candidates deposited in different
ballot boxes.
There is one provision Of the bill for
which there does not appear 20 be any good
reason. 1t provides that there "shall be
separate and distinct ballots" for governor,
administrative Offices of the executive
department, state senator, representatives
in the legislature, justices of the supreme
court, county Offices, congressman and
presidential electors.
Unless there is box for each office the
sorting aRd counting of the tickets will be
pretty big job. There will be seven or
eight times as many ballots cast as under
the present election law. If the ballots for
governor are put in one box, however, and
those for supreme court judges in another.
and so on through the list, the counting of
the ballots will be simpIifed and expedited.
But how about the voters2 VIII they not
have some difficulty in casting so many
ballots correctlyl At general election at
which national, state and county Off
GERS are elected. voter will have to cast
eight ballots. Will an ignorant voter be
able in every instance to get his ballots in
the right boxes9 If he fails to deposit
the ballots in the boxes in which
they elong they will not, of course, be
counted. Although no pains should be
spared to secure an honest election, the
election methods should be as simple as
possible. There are thousands of voters in
every state who could not, without some
assistance, cast correctly eight different
ballots in as many ballot boxes, each box
being for ballots for candidates different
from the candidates of any other box. The
system of voting for which the Florida bill
provides assumes that every voter can read,
and that be can select the box for which
each particular ticket is intended. 1t will
hardly he denied that this assumption is a
rather violent one.
The bill also provides for tickets printed
in the English, German and Spanish lam
guages This provision supposes that men
will be appointed judges and clerks Of cleo
tion who are acquainted with all of those
languages, or that each election precinct
will be furnished with an interpreter. As
tGis is an English speaking country would
it not be advisable to hold out some induce
ment to all whose homes are here to make
themselves sufficiently familiar with the
English language TO De able to vote intelli-
gentlyl The Florida legislature need have
no fear that those who speak the Spanish
and German languages will not vote the
tickets they want to, even though the tickets
are all printed in the English language.
The bill is lengthy one, and is full of
details. While it might not be an easy
matter to shorten it great deal it would
seem as if it could be improved by elimi-
mating some Of it's very numerous details.