The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-09-30
CONCERNING THE NEW BALLOT LAW.

has been for several weeks the SUBJECT Oh
varying comment and criticism. To the
officials entrusted with the labor and
responsibility of formulating the ballots
and other paraphernalia the law pre-
scribes, life was burden till the furni-
ture was finally completed and trans
mitted to the officials whose business il
was made, on election day, to press the
button and abide in full faith and con-
fidence that the kangaroo election
machinery twill do the rest" This pre-
liminary work was finally accomplished,
and the requirements of the law, plain
or hazy, met, in this section, at least,
with commendable degree of accuracy
and perspicuity. A candidate sometimes
shuffled of his mortal coil after he had
been entered for the race for Office and
the time limit for making nominations
had been passed; name was incorrectly
reported, or some other incident served
to keep the town or county clerical
officer on the anxious seat, for fear that
some error of omission or commission
would deprive the freemen in his politi-
cal division of their ''inalienable rights. "
Election day came. There were none
of the scenes that have formerly ac-
companied the exercise of the right of
suffrage. There were no split tickets to
ensnare the unwary voter and execute
punishment on some candidate who may
have been the object of personal pique
or grudge. There was no ballot hawk
ing, no running the gauntlet of vocifer-
Gus and pestiferous ballot hawkers, none
or very little-of the old evils existed,
they were incidental to the new order of
things, were developed i'll its application.
That opportunities for practicing the
evils the new statute was formed to cure
exist in its provisions, or in spite of its
mandates, that the law is miSfit in
some respects, in its application to Yer
mont, no impartial observer of its practi-
cal working will deny. That the new
ballot-for State and County officers in
particular-was a trap and a snare, a
hinderance to the exercise of the right of
suffrage, perversion or Teversion of
that right, the history of the voting at
the recent election, as written on the
ballots by as intelligent body of voters
as exists anywhere under the sun, abun-
dainty testifies.
That there is universal demand for
the summary repeal of the law by the
Republicans, or the Republican papers
of this State, as the professional and in
corrigible liars about Vermont and the
Republican yarty of Vermont-the
Springfield Republican, for example-are
declaring and insisting, is not true. The
great cardinal features of the law-the
official ballot and secrecy in voting
Vermont Republicans believe Unjust and
shall be preserved" but they should be
preserved and made operative by
methods which do not practically dis
franchise large numbers of voters, and
which do not divert from candidates for
office votes that were clearly intended
for them. Throughout the State can
di1ates for State or county offices who
CHANGED to come second or third or
fourth on the list we're not given the
votes that, it was plain, were intended
for them. The Lieutenant Governor,
for example, quite generally ran behind
the head of the ticket, soley by reason of
his position on the ticket and a method
of marking that scenes to have proved
unin telligible to large number of
voters, who marked the Ky against the
name of the candidate for Governor, but
skipped the candidates for the remain
ing offices, under the impression evident
ly that the cross marked in the margin
of the ballot opposite the name of the
Governor carried its indicative force
down along the entire list of candidates
of the same political faith. In counties
having Two Senators the second Repub-
lican candidate narrowly escaped defeat
by the first Democratic candidate solely
because many voters, having marked a
cross in the margin of the ballot opposite
the name of the first candidate, sup
posed that by such act they had indi-
Gated their vote for both candidates.
This popularity in marking affected as
sistant Judges in like manner. The
Springfield Republican declares that
these Obliquities in voting simply show
what large proportion of our voters
there is that are unfit to exercise their
right" Sense and grammar are alike
befogged in the Republicans mind. A
business man, an editor or an editorial
writer, an accountant, base ball scorer,
a civil engineer, might quickly grasp all
the intricacies of the official ballot for
State and county officers; but the farmer,
the mechanic, the day laborer, who
handle other tools than pen or pencil,
who are not aptto be pen and ink men,"
might enormously mark the ballot pre-
scrlbed by existing law, without thereby
impeaching their FITNESS to exercise the
right Of suffrage" The form of the ballot
can nquestionably be better adapted to
the securing of full and accurate ex-
preston of the will of every voter.
If the second cardinal feature of the
law, secrecy, is to be kept inviolate, and
if the existing law gives the entire board
of civil authority the freedom of the
sacred space within the guard rail while
the voting is going on, that freedom
should be somewhat restricted. This
board, comprising the Selectmen and
Justices of the peace, may include with
in its Membership some expert spoilers.
There was ''monkeying" with voters to
some extent The ballot clerk, too,
comes dangerously near performing the
functions of boss and dictator in the
guardianship the law gives him over the
ignorant or illiterate voter. For the
salutary manipulation of this unfortu-
nate freeman, the suggestion is made
that he be placed in the custody of
ballot clerk from each of the leading
political parties. This might insure fair
play, but the remedy that will go to the
root of the difficulty is that the ignorant
or illiterate be not allowed to vote till he
can read ballot, or can write upon it
the name of the man for whom he de-
sires to vote.
The ballot law is in no danger of re-
peal; amendment in respect of various
serious defects, to only two or three of
which we have referred, and adaptation
to conditions existing in this body poll
tic, is what will demand vigorous en-
plOyment of the wisdom and virtue of
Vermont when it assemblies at the capital
next month. Waterman.