News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-09-03
The New Ballot LaW-Judae Powers


There has been quite a little discus
sion of late, and particularly during
the recent extra session, regarding
the Australian ballot law, as adopted
at the regular session of the legisla-
ture last fall. The question having
been raised that there were defects in
it, Secretary of State, c. W. Brownell,
Jr., asked Judge Powers for writ
! ten opinion of the same. The Judge
has given his opinion and states that
he finds the law correct, except posi-
bly, in counties where there are more
than one probate district, and that
is so slight that it can be easily rem
edied. The opinion is given in full
herewith -
ChaunceY ". BrOWneH Jr
My DEAR SIR I'm accordance with your
request, have examined the Australian bal
lot law passed at the last session of the legis-
lature and fail to discover the defects in it to
which you referred, and which have been pub
lished in some of the newspapers of the state.
The first and most prominent difficulty spec
flied is that no provision exists for a second
ballot for town representative in case no cleo
ton is made on the first ballot. | think this
objection springs from misrepresentation re-
speeding the form of the ballot itself By sec
ton of the act of1S9O all existing laws reg
uIating the conduct of elections except as
modified by the act of 1890 are left in force.
There is nothing in the act of 1890 that re-
quires the ballots for town representative to
contain anything more than the names ofthe
candidates oil 10
vides that ballots for town representative
| shall go into a box by themselves. That box
| is to be turned and the votes counted at 3
| O'Clock in the afternoon and if no choice has
been made a new ballot is ordered and this
| is repeated 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 nomn-
| ated for town representative, as specified in
| he 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 o'clock,
a 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. Section 20 directs that 800 ballots, for
every fifty votes cast at the next preceding
election, shall be provided for use in choos-
| ing representative, and if these are all used
| before a choice is made, the presiding officer
| is to supply more
! Inc ACT OF 1851 uOeS nOU provide, as some
| have claimed, that only one ballot, contain
| ing the state, county and town tickets, is to
| be used. There may be as many different
| ballots under the new law as under the old.
| 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
ballot, and this will go into the box provid-
ed for that purpose. The old law required a
| box to be provided for votes for justices of
| the peace. Under the new law, such votes
| will go into box by themselves, and of
| course, the ballot will contain the names of
| candidates for other offices. And so with
| votes for town representative. The only diff
| hculty apparent in the text of the new law is
| found in Sec. 6, relating to certificates of
nomination. In counties having more than
| one probate district, there seems to be a
| technical difficulty. The section provides
that g 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 oversight can be remedied by
an amendment inserting after the words sen
tire county the words cor probate dis
| trlct." 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 COMPRESSION
| al tickets.
The county clerks are to provide one bal
| lot containing such names and also the coun-
| ty ticket in their respective counties, includ-
ing probate judges and county commission
ers. 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 represen-
tative 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.
FL. II. POWERS.