Evening journal., 1890-02-13

HUMILIATION papers rs 10 kANt rue people ]
ready redress when the political parties (
fail to nominate good men. The natural /
consequence Of this will be that the /
parties will studiously aim to put their /
best men on the ticket The full adj
dress Of the signers of a nomination |
paper is required In order 10 place the re-
sponsibility Of max ing nominations at |
someone's door, and thus prevent noni-
nations from being made for silly rea
sons or by men OF straw.
All nominations for state Offices |
whether made by political conventions or |
otherwise, must be filed with the secre- |
tary of state, and the nominations for |
county or hundred offices must be died |
with the clerk of the peace. Nomination |
certificates and papers shall be open to
public inspection.
In Massachusetts, the ballots are
printed under the supervision of the sec
rotary of state but In most of the other
states that have adopted this system /.
is done under the direction OF the county
clerk. The official ballot contains the
name of every candidate for each office
whether nominated by party or by a
body Of citizens through q nomination
paper. The law requires the candidates
to be arranged on the ticket under the
designation of their office according to
the initial letter OF their surname. 0p.
posite each candidate shall be printed
the name Of his party or some political
designation expressed in not more than
three words, and also opposite each name
shall be left q small margin in which the
voter can make a cross (Xl There shall
be as many blank spaces left at the end Of
the candidates for each Office as there are
persons to be voted for. 50 that the cleo
tor can vote for persons not actually
nominated by writing in the name
or FASTING slip in the blank
space. On the back Of the ticket shall be
printed the words "Official Ballot for"
followed by the name of the voting place
and ward and precinct IL any, and fac
smile Of the official who supervised the
printing of the ballot. Four times as
many ballots shall be printed for any
voting place as there are legal voters on
the list These ballots when printed are
to be delivered TO the sheriff Of the
county IN which they are to be used
The ballots for any one,,ssplace are to be
evenly divided and put up into two
packages, each fastened with a seal. and
are to be delivered by the sheriff to the
| inspector Of the election at different
times-one at least forty eight hours and
| the other twenty-four hours before the
opening OF the polls-and the said inspec-
tor shall receipt for the same to the
| sheriff
Besides the Official Ballot, the other
| prominent feature OF the Australian Sys
tenn is the booths or compartments for
secretly marking the ballot. Voting un-
der this system must be conducted IN a
room. The room is divided into two
parts by a railing: One part of which is
for the public and the other part for the
election officers and the booths or COM
partments The voter enters the room
and presents himself to the election
officers where he establishes his rights to
vote as Is not required by law This
done be Is given an official ballot by the
officers and is admitted within the railing
where he retires to vacant compartment
or booth and marks his ticket free from
all observers. He must fold his ticket
before leaving the booth and hand It To
the election officer before passing out Of
the enclosed space. If he should spoil :
ballot IN marking IL, he can procure
anothe by returning the spoiled one.
There IS a query that this feature o
PREPARING the ticket in seclusion un
doubtedly suggests to the minds Of vol
ali, and that is, What win the illiterat
voter doy VIII he not be virtually Olsen
tranchised? According to the provision
in most OF the states that have adOptel
this system the illiterate or the person
physically disabled has the privilege o
calling upon one Of the election officers L
assist him in marking his ballot. This i
loophole in the system The provision
in the Delaware bill differed from tn
others In that it required two election
officers to assist the illiterate or physi
r cally disabled voter in marking his ticket
! IL was provided that these two officers
who should assist in the marking, shoUl'
q be Of different parties, and neither o
, them were permitted TO make any sug
gestions to the voter how he should mari
i the ticket, but all the suggestions Of thi
nature must come from the voter. 4
. violation of this provision was made
misdemeanor. Even that proviso is no
! free from objection. The secrecy Of tn
voting is destroyed in so far q
: there are illiterate voters The tw
! election officers can know how every per
son voted who called upon them for rs
sistance. There is sample way that ha
been recently suggested in which thi
apparent obstacle can be surmounted
and that is by letting some sign o
symbol or a given number Of small star
, | be placed after the name of all the can
didates Of each party in addition to tn
: party name or political designation As
= for instance, one star opposite "a candi
date may indicate that he Is the regula
Democratic nominee; two stars that b
Is the regular Republican nominee; AM
!. three stars, or crescent or any other sym
' Dol that he is an Independent
I or Prohibitionist, or of an
( party that may be designate,
I by said stars or symbols. With a tickle
printed according to that suggestion az
illiterate can mark his ballot without as
sistanee as intellgeutly as other persons
J This improvement viii without doubt bI
! made in future legislation on this line.
/ have heard this objection made t
I the Australian System, that on aocoun
! Of the time it took to mark ticket, som
I voting places would be unable to poll al
7 the legal votes. was informed in Bostol
!. that in North Adams there were 1856
votes cast at one polling house. and
prominent spectator said that 25OC coul
have been polled. The speaker then de
r clared that the adoption OF this system
Y would abolish bribery at the polls. TIL
3 opponents Of the nomination are tn
d sellers and buyers of votes. Anotbe
9 advantage he claimed for the system wa
s that it would induce better men to rul
e for office. The poor candidate would the
/ have a chance, as his campaign would b
! comparatively inexpensive.
II Tho ana.lrar concludad bia .ddrass q