The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-05-20
THE BALLOT-AS 1T rs, AND
AS PROPOSED BY Proper
TIONAL REPRESENT
TATION,
TATION,

The proportional representation will
give us the ballot as it should be.
1t is applicable when three or more
officials of kind are to be chosen,
such as supervisors, school directors,
judges and representatives to the leg
islature and to congress. A variety OF
plans have been devised TO secure the
representation of the whole people.
each division or party to have its pro-
portonal share-corresponding to its
numerical strength. Instead of giving a
minute description of these various
plans, it will be sufficient for present
purposes to give general outline OF
the system, together with some of the
advantages to be gained by its use.
Let us suppose, then, hat ten repre-.
sentatives are to be chosen by ten
thousand voters. 1t is evident that
every thousand voters are entitled to
one representative. Now, were there
no district lines in the way, and no
necessity Of getting majority OF the
votes in order to elect candidate, all
that any thousand voters-in the case
we have supposcd-would have to do
to elect man would be to 60 and vote
for him. They could vote for an Gin
dependent" candidate without any
danger of throwing their votes away
In any case that may arise the number
Of votes cast divided by the number OF
officials to be elected will givethe number
of votes required to elect one candidate;
this is called the quota. Any party
that polls two, or more, quotas, will
elect two, or more, men, and so on
The number that any party can elect
will depend upon the number of quotas
it can muster, and not upon getting a
majority or plurality of the votes cast.
In municipal elections the ward lines
will be abolished, and in voting for
representatives to the state legislature
and to congress the other district lines
will be abolished.
The last rule, however, may be mod
i6ed by dividing the state into large
districts for electing representatives, to
the state legislature, but there must be
no congressional districts. San Fran
cisco, for instance, sends twenty assem-
blymeu to the legislature and it might
constitute district. Other districts
might be formed sending less number
as low as eight or ten, perhaps. But
to illustrate the theory of proportion,
we will suppose the state to constitute
one district only. Then, suppose there
are 100 representatives to be elected
and there are 200, 600 votes cast then,
1000 votes will elect one. Suppose
also, we have four parties: one OF 80, :
900, one of 10000, one 10000, and
another of 10000; the first will elect
forty. the second thirty, the third
twenty, and the last, ten representatives.
1t matters not how many nor how few
''parties' there may be nor how many
"splits' there may be in any party on
the choice of its candidates, provided it
does not split up into fragments of less
than 1900 yoters-or Whereabouts,
since any "independent" body of voters
numbering 1000 can surely elect their
man if that be the quota. 1t may be
we'll to state here that the mathematical
quota is found by dividing the number
of voters by one more than the number
of officers to be elected, and then add
ing one the quotient. But there are
ways to secure professional representa-
tion with sufficient accuracy without a
fixed quota.
Under proportional representation a
voter can only sell himself. We are
now sold into slavery by purchased
votes bought up to create majorities.
Suppose it to require quota of 2 900
to elect, then that number of votes,
either purchased or "colonized," will
elect only one man, On the contrary.
under the present system, 200, fifty or
perhaps twenty purchased votes, cast
in say twenty districts, may ''turu the
SCALE" and elect twenty representatives,,
and thereby prevent thousands of hon
est voters from being represented
Thus it is that score or two of knaves
can sell out from one to fifty thousand
of our best citizens. A few hundred
or few thousand fraudulent voter;
may, by defeating party, change the
policy, check the progress, and ever
imperil the life of the nation. We
hear a great cutlery against the purchase
and sale of votes /; but the purchase anC
sale Of maiorities is the term tina