Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-16
A MILLION BALLOTS.
Commissioners Award the
Printing Contract for
Allegheny County.
1T WILL COST $t5,175.
An Order for Paper at Once For
warded to an Eastern Factory.
EIGHT DAYS TO DO THE WORK.
Two Hundred Girls to BE Employed to
Find the Ballots.
1T WILL COST $15,175.
EIGHT DAYS TO DO THE WORK.
Two Hundred Girls to BE Employed to
Find the Ballots.
EVERY VOTER TO GET A SET OF RULES


lhe approaching election in Allegheny
county was yesterday afternoon awarded to
the Pittsburg Printing Company, G.Golder,
President, for SIS, ,175, providing the stubs
are not to be numbered. If the stubs are to
be numbered the contract price is to be
increased S475
The Commissioners have not as vet been
officially informed as to whether the ballot
stubs are to be numbered. Chairman
Reeder, of the Republican State Commit
tee, has announced that the Baker law does
not positively require it, So far the State
authorities have been silent on the subject.
The Commissioners will be guided by the
decision of the Secretary of the Common
wealth, who. it is expected, will submit
his Interpretation of the Baker law to the
Commissioners of the State within week.
Nearly Million Ballots.
The contract with the Pittsburg Printing
Company provides for the printing of 42O.-
300 sample ballots, 420 900 regulation bal.
lots and 21O,000 cards OF instruction. The
cards of instruction will be sent out with
the regular ballots. The instructions are to
be plainly printed in bold-taced type and
every voter in the county will be supplied
with several of them.
There were but three bidders for the job
of printing the ballots The bid of Will
lam Bennett was $50 per 1000 or S17, $50 for
the S4O,O ballots, providing the stubs are
to be numbered. If the stubs are not to be
numbered the bid was SIS per ], 600 or S16.-
17O. For the cards of instruction Mr.. Ben
nett bid S. per 200 additional
Shaw Brothers bid $50 per 1000 for the
10000 sample ballots, S25 per 1000 for the
same number of regular ballots and So 90
per ], 900 for the cards of instruction.
The bids were opened by the County Con-
trolIer, and the contract was promptly
awarded. With their bid the Pittsburg
Printing Company filed satisfactory bond
for S17, 900 for the satisfactory fulfllment OF
the contract.
4 Guarantee for Prompt Delivery.
The Commissioners will require the print
ing company to file an additional bond to
guarantee that the ballots are printed and
delivered to the proper county officials
within the time prescribed by the Baker
law.
The County Commissioners had expected
that on account of the fuss made regarding
the inability of the printers to print the
ballots that the bids would be much larger
than those presented. They had, however,
secured some expert figures on the work
and had decided not to award the contract
in the event of the bids being unreason-
able. They believe now, however, that the
successful bid was reasonable.
This ballot business has been great
ANNOYANCE and I'm glad the contract has
been given out" Commissioner Wier sal d
Yesterday.
The bond of the Pittsburg Printing Com
panv was accepted, and as soon as Mr.. w.
j. Rothweiler, President of the company.
was notified that he was the successful bid
der, he went to work to prepare for getting
out the Job. Paper was ordered from an
Eastern factory by telegraph, and he ex-
poets one car load of it here by Wednesday.
Bv the time that lot is used up a second
car, which will be all that will be required
Will be on hand.
How the Work VIII BE Done.
So much has been said recently about the
enormity of the job that Mr.. Rothweiler
was asked yesterday evening to explain
how he intended to get it out. When seen
in his office he was busily engaged with mis-
foreman discussing the construction of the
ballot and how it could be ''set up'' to the
best advantage.
"The size of the Job does not worry me so
much" said Mr.. Rothweiler, "as the linn
ited time in which we have to print the
ballots. We cannot get the ballot In our
hands until within u days of the election,
and we must have it printed and ready for
delivery four days ahead of the
atgnr ion, MI atrl,t
DAYS in which to do the work
and one of them is Sunday-thus giving us
but seven days actual time in which to
get out S40,0 600 ballots and 210, 900 cards of
instruction. The ballots require two i'm
pressions each, or !, $50, 900 in all. To this
add 210,000 instruction cards, makes a total
of 1.11S,00 impressions in the entire Job.
If everything works well it will not require
seven Gays, but we must make some allow
ance for stops to change forms.
-Four Hundred and Fifty Changes.
There are 450 changes in the ballet, to
correspond with each polling precinct and
the several congressional and legislative
districts in the county.
1--WE have six large cylinder presses,
which we can run constantly if necessary.
On three of these L think We can print tour
ballots at once. and on the other three two
at a time. Our own electrotyping establish
ment will be an advantage to us, as the
portion of the ballot relating to the cleo
toral vote will only require single compo-
5ition. From that electroplates can be
made for all our presses and the work
greatly simplified."
But how do you propose to number the
ballots and bind them?" was asked.
That is not worrying us, either" re-
piled Mr.. Rothweiler. "And while / do
not want to crow too much until after the
elephant is off my hands, 1 think 1 have
our plans arranged so that the work will 90
along just like clockwork. We have
rented one of the large halls in the city and
as soon as the presses are started 200 girls
will be put TO work in the hall cumming,
binding, numbering and packing the ballots.
Each days work will be ready for delivery
the following day, and in that way the
whole job can be delivered to the County
Commissioners the day after the last ballot
has been printed"