St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-09
Cleveland
AMEND THE BALLOT LAW.

Taking the population of the state as
a basis and allowing for rate OF IN
crease less than the experience OF the
years would Justify, there should have
been cast at the late election 2S5. 600
votes. The fact that this was presi-
dental election, with full state and
county tickets in the field, tended to draw
out a very full vote. 1t is probable that
the Stay-at-hOme vote was a compare
lively Insignificant one. The vote was
5000 below what it might have been.
1t was but 5000 more than that cast in
1883. We are not driven to the conclu-
sion that so large percentage OF the
voters of the state were too indifferent
to the issues pending to go to the polls.
Reports from all sections of the state by
those who observed the counting of the
ballots. say that there were losses of
from to 10 per cent from ballots so de-
fectivelv marked as to be worthless Or
not marked at ALL The instances are
very numerous where the voter was too
proud to admit his illiteracy and went
through the form Of taking the ballot,
retiring to the booth and returning it
without a mark OIL it.
Another popularity existing in all the
states using this ballot. was the very
much greater number of votes received
by the candidate at the head of the
ticket or group than those below him
had, showing that either the voters
Wcaried of the task of going down the
ballot or supposed that the marking of
the first name carried the rest. This
has given mixed electoral college in
some of the states.
No party seems to have been exempt
from this loss. All appear to have suf
fered about alike. If anything, the Re-
publican par tv, being strongest in the
country, where opportunities for edu-
cation are less than in the Democratic
cities. suffered the most. 1t was the
loss OF some fourteen thousand Repub-
lican votes in Massachusetts,, through
ignorance of how to mark their ballots,
that elected the Democratic governor.
The New York Tribune lamented the
decreased vote in Vermont as due to the
same cause. All parties then, from a
purely oCllSu pOliI VI FlON, dtN lliCSA-
ested in so amending the ballot law as
to minimize this loss.
As the ballot law passed the house to
the senate it was the most flexible of
any adopted by any state. 1t required
that the names of the different parties
presenting candidates should be
printed at the head of the ballots and
that cross in the space opposite the
party name should be counted as vote
for all the nominees of that party, eX-
cept where the voter had marked the
name of the nominee of some other
party, in which case the vote should be
counted for those candidates SO espe-
cially marked, and for all the others of
the party whose name at the head of
the ticket was marked. This complied
with what should be the first considera-
ton of any voting la W; it made it easy
for the voter to express his choice. 1t
served equally we'll the interests of the
illiterate man, of the Intelligent man
who only cared to vote the straight
ticket, while it left both classes free to
express easily their dissent from any
nomination. The coming legislature
should restore to the law the features
of which the senate depri we'd it.