Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-15
THE ELECTION LAW PUZZLE,

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just now, is whether the Story method of
counting votes shall be abandoned. An
Oakland Inspector says that in his pre-
cinct it worked to charm and that 2S1
votes were counted and the whole business
of certifying closed up by 11:30 P. NJ.
Making all allowance for time los. in get
ting ready, time consumed in posting bull
letins and the time necessary to seal up
the ballots and make out the certificates,
the ballots must have been canvassed at
the rate of more than one to minute.
That is three or four times as fast as it
would have been possible to count under
the old system.
Five San Francisco Inspectors certify
that they had no difficulty whatever in
their precincts in rapidly ascertaining re-
suits. An election clerk who has served
as such for twenty years in San Francisco
tells the Bulletin that the Story system is
better than any other, and that on Tues
day last he and his Election Board worked
it in large precinct without jar or the
slightest inaccuracy and in half the usual
time.
Still another election officer gives like
testimony, but suggests notifications of
the form of the tally sheets. Some fifteen
or twenty Election Boards elsewhere in
the State certify that the new system occa-
stoned them no trouble. A thousand or
more are not heard from, but more than
fifteen hundred declare that the system
did not work well, and that they could
not accurately tally the votes under it and
that they believe it to be a fiat failure.
In this city some of the most "muddled"
returns came in from clerks who are expe-
rienced bookkeepers and good business
men. In one Of the precincts, where both
clerks were accountants, there was not
single correct calculation on the tally
sheets. In that precinct the Inspector
was citizen who has served on Election
Boards for a score of years.
The San Francisco Bulletin declares that
all the difficulty in that city was occasioned
by the incompetency of the Inspectors,
Judges and Clerks, and it hints broadly
that this incompetency and the miscount-
ing and general bungling there has sus-
picious look, as if behind it all was Sc
creted job to undo certified results, had
the election been very close.
The REcoRD-UNIoN has said that in
theory the Story system is admirable,
economic of time, preventive, very largely,
of fraud, and generally, as a theoretical
plan, without doubt worthy of approval.
But this journal also said, that from evil
dences before it in this city, it believed
the system would not prove of practical
benefit, for the reasan that competent cleo
ton officers cannot be had in small pre-
cincts in the interior under the law as it
stands, who will study the system in ad
vance, and be prepared to work it out ac-
cording to its rules.
We have no desire to see the law re-
pealed if any means can be devised to put
expert accountants into the polling booths,
or, that is, men who have been instructed
in the system and manifest comprehen-
sion of it. Until that can be done, the
law will remain the hindrance it proved
to be on the 4th inst.
There is strength in the position assumed
by the San Francisco Bulletin that it would
be unwise to set aside a system admittedly
good, and that is crippled only by the in
ability of Election Boards to underestimate
Now the RECORD UNION, after further
study of the subject and diligent inquiry
among the election officers of Tuesday last,
believes that there is, after all path out
of the difficulty, and that it can be opened
by modification of the election law passed
by the last Legislature.
l. Require that Offices named on tick
cts shall occur in the order Of the procla-
nation, and thus correspond with the
order on the tally sheets. This will re-
move serious obstacle to progress in
tallying.
2. Remove the restrictions that ex-
clude competent clerks from the Election
Boards, because they are school teachers,
subordinates or deputies in public offices,
or because they may in some remote way
have been recently in public employment.
8. Remove the restriction that clerks
must be assessed taxpayers, and thus adj
NIT many competent young men to clerks
for the Boards who have not yet acquired
property.
4. Require the clerks to come before
some competent person in each township,
to be named by the Supervisors, and be in
structed in the method of tallying and
posting under the law, just prior to cleo
ton day; or to show that they understand
it because of previous service.
In this way it will be possible to put
into each Election Board at least one per-
son familiar with the tally system Of the
new law; to lessen the friction occasioned