Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-04-02
GOVERNOR HILL AND BALLOT REFORM

Governor Hill OF New \ ork has vetoed
the Saxton ballot reform bill. We are un-
advised as yet as to his reasons for this
second veto. but it is said that he holds it
to be the right Of citizen to prepare his
ballot at home and bring it to the polls
and cast it, and therefore it is unconstitu-
tional to provide that he must receive his
ballot from the election officers and pre-
pare it in the private voting booth erected
at the polls. If this is the chief objection
of Governor Hill, he has succeeded in
making himself ridiculous. The casting
of a ballot is not right, in a strict sense.
1t is a privilege, surrounded in all the
States with conditions. Thus the insane
cannot vote; prisoners in the .jails, men
who have been convicted of penal ofienses
OF given class; young men under spe-
citic age. In some of the States qualifca-
tions are attached that do not exist in
others. and in at least one the possession of
certain amount of property is necessary
to qualify the voter; and in still another
he must prove that he has paid poll-tax
before he can enjoy the privilege of voting.
In several of the States he is required to
have his ballot printed upon official paper,
and even the character of the type in
which it is printed is prescribed by law.
But if it should be admitted for the sake
of the argument that the casting of the
ballot is right in the sense intended by
Governor Hill, it remains that the State
also has rights concerning the methods by
which it will receive the ballot. 1t exer-
cises the power of appointing the election
officers, of prescribing the character of the
ballot-box, of determining the method of
counting anil Of the disposition of the bal
lots. 1t prescribes how the ballots shall
be interpreted, and from the beginning has
specified the form of the ballot and its
character, and has provided means for pre-
serving the inviolability of the secresy of
the ballot. Now the Saxton bill has no
striking features except these: That the
State shall print the ballots; that the
electors shall offer to deposit no ballot not
official in origin; that the ballot shall not
be voted open that the voter shall be left
alone in room or booth few minutes
prior to casting his ballot; that he may be
free from all outside influences, and have
full opportunity to vote as he wishes; that
the voters name shall be registered in the
polling booth, and that he shall indicate
his choice of candidates by mark made
opposite the name Of the person he wishes
to be elected. In all these pro-
visions there is no interference with
the privilege or the fright" of
the voter; one the contrary, the bill
conseryes the freedom of the ballot and
the privilege of the elector to vote his bal
lot without the domination of any one.
But before the bill was passed it was ar
ranged that Governor Hill should oppose
it, as he had done its predecessor. The
Governor is simply keeping his contract
with the enemies of secret ballot. an
honest count and clean politics. He struck
a bargain with the undesirable element in
politics, and he has stood true to it. But
ballot reform is moving forward despite
Governor Hill, and it viii become the rule
of elections in his State sooner or later.
and we incline to the belief that it will be
very soon. Certainly, if Governor Hill
aspires to be the Democratic nominee for
the Presidency in 1892, he defeated his
ambition by his veto of the Saxton bill.
The Democracy will not have the hardi-
hood to take up any man who is opposed
to ballot reform, especially when the lead
ing Democrats of the country are 'out"
warmly in favor of reform ballot systems.