St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-05-07
THE AUSTRALIAN SYSTEM.

There has never been faIrer expert
ment of the Australian system than the
one we had yesterday i'll our municipal
election, and we can as trutllflllly say
never has there been more success
full one. The first thing that impressed
the voter on approaching the polls was
the extremely orderly scene: and the
same was observable at every precinct.
A church meeting could not have been
conducted with more decorum and
stricter regard for the proprieties than
was observed at the various polling
booths. The heelers and the ballot dis
tribntorS who have been an accompani-
ment of every election from time i'm
memorial were only conspicuous by
their absence. At very few of the pre-
cincts, and then only at occasional in
tervals. was there anything like crowd
around the polls; and then they dropped
into line with the precision of military
veterans, and marched into the booths
in turn with the orderly behavior of
men going about their usual business
ayocations.
Once inside of the booth, the voter
naturally experienced novel sensation
in being privileged to fill out his ballot
without a suggestion from anybody.
He found himself in conference with
himself and with his better Judgment,
and if he never before felt the response
bility of being a suffragan, he did this
time. The most formidable obstacle
that he encountered was the clumsy
grouping of names on the official ballot,
and the consequent difficulty in separat-
ing those that he intended to vote for.
Many of the voters had an idea that
each party ticket was to be printed on
a separate slip, as is done under the re-
quirementS Of the SAXTON law in New
York; consequently there was some
confusion when he found all the candi-
dates grouped on one ballot. Most of
the spoilt ballots are probably to be at
tributed to this cause.
1t is now evident that when the peo-
pie have once become familiar with the
operations of the Australian law they
will never consent to 20 back to the old
system of voting. In fact, the opera
tons of the law will undoubtedly be
extended by the next Legislature, SO that
the Australian mode will prevail
throughout the state. While there may
not be SO much necessity for it, there is
no reason why the Australian system
should not operate as smoothly and as
successfully in the rural districts as in
the cities and larger towns.
The single defect OF the law, so far as
we have been able to observe and study
its operations, is the failure to suffi-
GENTLY protect the public against the
danger of corrupt election officers.
Where the election is being conducted
by strictly upright officials, all posi-
bilities for corruption are pretty thor
oughly eliminated. But to our mind
there is very dangerous power lodged
with the election judges and inspectors.
We can imagine case where there was
collision between the election officers
and the public official who provides the
official ballot, or between the election
officers and the printer who prints the
ballots, where gross fraud might be
perpetgated. and the law would be
powerless to correct it or to punish the
guilty parties. In aiming to protect the
secrecy of the ballot, and to hedge the
individual voter with bulwar1 Of pro-
lection against outside influence, the
law has unfortunately lodged danger
Gus power in the hands of the election
officers. When this defect has been
remedied we will be prepared to pro-
nounce the Australian mode the model
I.aIlot cvetpma 0f the world