The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1890-05-16
Pecullaritics of the New Election Law.

Section 90 OF the new electoral law pro-
vides that: ION or before the first day OF
September in the year 1890, and in each year
thereafter, the officers now charged by law
with the division or alteration OF election
districts shall alter or divide the existing
election districts whenever necessary, in
such manner that each election district
shall contain not more than three hum
drcd voters" This provision has been
| the cause of considerable unnecessary
solicitude on the part of a number Of public
functionares and others. The Comptroller
has written letter to the Board OF Police
Commissioners on the subject, while several
eminent gentlemen, including the Hon. II.
r. BEEKMAN, are quoted as declaring that it
| will add some four or five thousand" to
| the number of election officers and increase
the number Of polling places in New York
from 1919, as at last years election, to 1900
or whereabouts, with consequent large in
crease of expense to the city.
The presence at the polls OF 6000 paid
functionaries, exclusive of United States
Marshals and supervisors, has proved to be
an item Of large outlay; and it would GER
tainly be a strange thing that the Legisla-
turc should unanimously pass, and an officer
as vigilant and circumspect as Governor
HILL should sign, a bill adding unnecessa-
rily four or five thousand TO the previous
large number of election functionares.
But such is not the case. The provision Of
the law has been misunderstood by those
who have undertaken to explain IL.
At the election of last November in this
city only AZ OF the 1,Ol9 election districts
cast vote in excess of 800. The new law
does not prescribe that the Police Commits
sioners must divide the election districts;
they can alter them by adding the super
fuous voters OF one district to an adjacent
one which has fewer than 300 votes. Thus
there might be no need Of any new dis
tricts; and. at any rate, not moro than
AZ would DO required. On the other
hand, 81 election districts cast, last year,
less than 100 votes each, and these must.
Of course, be consolidated under the terms
OF the law. Therefore there cannot be an in
crease of more than twenty polling places
under the new law. Furthermore, while
we have hitherto had four inspectors and
two poll clerks, a total Of six officials at each
precinct the new law requires but five.
Thus, instead Of there being 1919 election
districts with six sworn public officers in
each, as last year, there will this year be
at the most 1O39 election districts with five
officers each. This will result in reduction
of nearly thousand men on election day.
and for that single item a saving of $4,000
TO the treasury.
1t is somewhat interesting fact, not
without its appropriate political moral, that
the two Mugwump districts. the Eleventh
and Twenty-iirst, which were the most ar
dent in furnishing signatures for the ballot
pads and in advocating n new law. lose most
through its operation. The number Of cleo
ton districts will he diminished in each, and
on both the Democratic and Republican side
those two localities will have fewer dele
gates in each nominating convention,
municipal, judicial, and Congressional. On
the other hand, the big, populous, Demo-
cratic districts, the Fourth, Sixth, Tenth
Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and
Eighteenth, where the original SAXToN bill
was most vigorously opposed, get the bene-
lit of the altered arrangement and secure
increased representation and influence.
1t very frequently happens that tho too
early fish first encounters the hook.