The Republican journal., 1892-09-08
"split Tickets

To THE EDITOR OF The JOURNAL: While
it may be advisable for purely partisan p',r-
poses to recommend that every voter cast a
strict party ballot, whatever his political
bias may be-and in a sense it would seem
that the form of ballots arranged under the
Australian system was to encourage that
pan-yet the fact remains that there is a
great body of independent voters who will
not be confined to any party ticket, and that
in some localities there is a still greater
number in each of the leading political par
ties, as in our own county, for example, who
will not vote the "straight' ticket but
| propose to vote a "split'' or "cut' ticket at
the coming State election.
Now, it is well for these voters to be very
careful how they mark the ballot, else it
may be thrown out entirely under the new
law. If we check the party name we are
committed to the whole ticket, and if in adj
diton we check a name on some other ticket
of some candidate we prefer for a particular
office, we lose our whole vote. Therefore, the
only entirely safe method of voting is not to
check the party name, but to check each
| name LOT whom we WISH TO vote, upon WHICH,
ever ticket it may be found
Then comes another trouble. It has al
ways been customary for voter who finds
a name on his party ticket which is objec-
tionable to him to ''scratch it out" or erase
it. 1t seems there is no provision in the new
| law in regard to the effect such an erasure
would have on the legality of the ballot SC
| cast
| The attention of the Secretary of State
| was called to this matter and the following
is his opinion;
! 1t seems to me that the ballot is the prop
erty Of the State; that the voter has only a
| Nntited possession of it for certain purposes,
which, if am correct, places this sort of a
! ballot upon a very different footing from
any we have ever known.
The law provides for no erdsures of any
kind whatever, but defines how voter
may express his choice, by atfording sew
eral methods of marking what he chooses.
Now ony erasure at all would depend for
its effect upon the judgment of whoever hap
pened to constitute the particular Counting
Board who had it to pass upon, and cannot
venture an opinion as to what action, if any,
could render the counting of such ballot
| right or wrong.
Generally, I should say, as to erasures,
| which will occur, that
LIST. They should be disregarded alto
gether, if possible.
| 2nd. That, if cognizance must be taken of
them in order to connt such erasure should
be considered as affecting only the partic-
ular office affected by such erasure, as
| to preserve as much of the voters will as
| possible
| This is as far as | have gone in forming an
opinion in my own mind upon eraSures.
n. f.
! There are liable to he IA good many eras-
tires of a name on one of the tickets in Waldo
| county, and the voter cannot afford to lose
his right of suffrage, nor the other candi-
dates to lose the whole ticket thereby 1t
| would seem that in these cases it Will be en-
| tirely competent and right for the counting
| board to take into consideration the inten-
| ton OF the voter, as expressed by his "cut-
ting or erasure on the ticket, and give him
the full benefit and his undouhted rights in
the case, as suggested by the Secretary of
| State above. b.
| Belfast, September, 1892.