The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-09-11

written opinion on the subject. Below
we give the full text of the opinion:
OPINION OF EX-JUDGE POWERS.
Chduncey w. BroiDneH, Jr.
MY DEAR SIR:-In accordance with
your request, have examined the Aus
tralian ballot law passed at the last ses-
sion of the Legislature, and fail to dis
cover the defects in it to which you re-
ferred, and which have been published
in some of the newspapers of the State
The first and most prominent difficulty
specified is that no provision exists for a
second ballot for town representative in
case no election is made on the first bal
lot. think this objection springs from
a misapprehension respecting the form
of the ballot itself. By Sec. of the act
of 1890 all existing laws regulating the
conduct of elections except as modified
by the act of 1890 are leftin force. There
is nothing in the act of 1890 that requires
the ballots for town representative to
contain anything more than the names
of the candidates. for that of office. The
old law provides that ballots for town
representive shall go into box by them
selves. That box is to be turned and the
votes counted at o'clock in the after
noon and if no choice has been made a
new ballot is ordered and this is repeat
ed until an election is made The act of
1890 does not change this procedure in
the least, as read it. Hence, under the
new law, an official ballot containing the
names of candidates who have been nom
mated for town representative, as speci-
fled in the act, is to be prepared by the
town clerk and used at the election, and
if no choice is made on the first ballot,
counted at clock, second ballot is
ordered, new distribution of official
ballots is made to the voters and the box
is kept open as required by the old law.
Sec. 20 directs that 800 ballots, for every
fifty votes cast at the next preceding
election, shall be provided for use in
choosing a representative, and if these are
all used before choice is made, the pre-
siding officer is to supply more.
The act of 1890 does not provide, as
some have claimed, that only one ballot,
containing the State, county and town
tickets, is to be used. There may be as
many different ballots under the new, as
under the old law. The old law required
one box for the State, congressional and
county tickets. The new law does not
change this. Accordingly those tickets
will be printed now as before on one bal
lot, and this will go into box provided
for that purpose. The old law required
box to be provided for votes for JUS
tices of the peace. Under the new law,
such votes will go into box by them
selves, and Of course, the ballot will con-
tain the names of candidates for other
offices. And so with votes for town rep
resentative. The only difficulty apparent
in the text of the new law is found in
Sec. d, relating to certificates of nomina-
ton. In counties having more than one
probate district, there seems to be a
technical difficulty. The section pro-
vides that for offices to be filled by the
voters of an entire county" the certificate
shall be filed with the county clerk. The
constitution Art. II, provides that judges
of probate shall be elected by probate
districts, which. in the case named, is
less than the ''entire county" The over
sight can be remedied by an amendment
inserting after the words "entire coun-
ty' the words cor probate district"
With this correction made the new law
seems to be plain, when carefully read.
The Secretary of State has nothing to
do in preparing the ballots. He notifies
each county clerk whose names are to be
printed as candidates for the State and
Congressional tickets.
The county clerks are to provide one
ballot containing such names and also
the county ticket in their respective
counties, including probate judges and
county commissioners. This ballot,
when cast by the voter, goes into box
by itself and is not counted until five
o'clock.
Another distinct ballot for town repre-
sentative and still another for justices is
to be provided by the town clerk in each
town, which as said before, goes into
separate boxes. Yours truly,
II. H. POWERS.