The record-union., 1891-07-08
THE BALLOT LAW INSTRUCTION.
The Kern County Californian says:


with popular approval.
70 these remarks the Tulare Register
adds:
Probably there Will be q confusion of some
thlng besides tongues, but the essential need
| IS 10 get prospective officers of election out
into encampment like the militia and give
them kindergarten instruction. There are
I men who haven't been able to get the Story
law through their heads yet and these fellows
on beard couldn't count dozen ballots un-
der the new law before the arrival of the sue
ceeding election.
The Californian is in error; the new law
is not intricate. 1t ought to "bother' no
man with thimbleful Of brains. But,
unfortunately, it is true that if a law, the
success of which depends upon the uni
formity of its operation and enforcement,
is committed to fifty-four sets Of county
officials, each supreme in the local juris-
diction, the liability is the equivalent of
certainty that there will be omission of
some essential detail or OVERRIDING in some
respect, misinterpretation of some
phrase, or willful and malicious perver-
sion of some command of the law i'll some
of these quarters.
Now any grammar school boy can un-
derstand the new ballotlaw, but it does not
follow that all grammar school boys would
take trouble to do so. Any County Clerk,
County Supervisor or election officer fit
to be clerk. Supervisor or election in
spector can understand the law; but it is
L hot
not take the pains of study to do so.
The demand for uniformity supports
our idea of having the law mapped out in
working form, somewhat as Secretary of
State Waite is now doing, and that he has
entered upon the work is evidence that
at the State Capitol it is understood that
even the simplest laws are violated by
grossly careless officials.
For instance, simple as is the present
method of certifying election returns, and
though the instructions are printed in
simple English and in large letters in
black and white, on blanks and envel-
opes, instructing officers just what to do
with each blank and envelope, it is fact
that large number of returns come up
unsigned to clerks and some to the Secre-
tary Of State, or signed improperly, or
wrongly enveloped, or not enveloped at
all; that sometimes officers lock up re-
turns and duplicates, as in San Francisco
last year, and prevent any knowledge of
the result of an election being obtained
until an official canvass is made, though
the instruction not to seal up the dupli-
Gates are plainly printed thereon.
Clerks have been known to issue pro-
Carnations with the hours Of opening
and closing the polls wrongly given;
some of them have sent out blanks to
election officers that were not under
standable, and officers of election boards
have returned blanks untitled, that had
upon them great black letters instructing
the official what to write upon each line.
No, the new election law is simple,
clear and understandable; the trouble, if
there is any, will not be with the voters,
but will be chargeable to the stupidity or
wiilfulness of county and precinct Of
ficials. Besides, it must be remembered
that the law has enemies, whose political
all depends upon its defeat; also, that
when it is to be executed by so many
hundreds of officials, the liability of di-
verse interpretations of even the simplest
sentences exists, and ought therefore to
be met.
The Register is more nearly correct. It
evidently realizes the need, and is con-
versant with experiences under the old
law that are not creditable to election
boards, or to county officials. But we do
not agree with it that there is going to be
confusion. The friends of the reform
ballot are not asleep, and they will so
prepare the way that if any official errs it
will subject him to the penalties of doing
so with malicious intent.