New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-03-20
TIE MYERS B1LLOT M1CHINE,

| The general public is mutually Interested
in anything which is calculated, directly or IN
| directly. to conserve the right OF suffrage.
A good deal has been accomplished in orr own
state of late years for the baot-box. Laws
have been placed upon the statute books which
90 far to prevent bribery and corruption al the
polls If the bill pending in the Legislature
providing for blanket ballot is pas"d-and 1t
seems to be generally conceded that it will get
throueh-ihe business Of voting Will be greatly
smpfcd Public-spiritcd citizens may well
take heart as they reflect upon these things.
since they attest that NewYork is making
progress in most important direction.
Last winter the Legislature pa sod bill. OF
which Governor Flower approved. allowing the
use in any of the towns of the State IL what
is known as the Myers ballet machine The
fact that the measure passed both houses by a
practically unanimous vote would seem to in
dicatc that our people are OF the opinion that
the system of voting which j. now IN Use Is by
no means an ideal one. .ivsing themselves
of this law. a number of places in the interior
Of the State used the Myers machine at their
local elections this spring. The result l. salts
factoiy. The machine meets the best cAps Ia
ton. doing lis work correctly and with dis
patch. That seems to he the verdict OF every
district which has given it a trial. Here. for
example is the testimony OF 1.-The Lockprt
sun" Lockport having been the first place a;
which the machine was experimental with:
The greatest beauty Of the many admirable f-a-
tirc, oil tie machine however Is the dispensing
tampeiing with the count by inspectors Under The
Myers system the moment NE ,".rrt ccnparhTn,
announced. and may b" photographed or In dozen
other ways absolutely recorded beyond ,hc possibility
day ended at G:3s at Il 30 just one minute later.
The result Of The vote on supervisor WAS known.
side OF ten minutes the entire ticket Transcribed
by The same spec'ators Now. imagine that sort Of
district In the state known. and fined beyond tie
possibility Of chang or contest. within enc nm
,ransposed returns mIsspele1 name. wrongly in
dcxed ballots. which los, senatorial '.ai th. VIII
foiir for he votes 10 bc counted become instantly
thing OF The past.
The report from number Of othcr places
is equally emphatic. Al brighton. Mrnroc
County, the polls closed at three minutes be-
fore g. and at three minutes after the total
vote for each OF the forty -four clnd dates who
were running for Office had been registered by
the machine. transferred 10 the pcll-clerks
Rochester lIeIald' states. Nor is speed at
tanned at the expense Of accuracy. The ma
chine is sclf-recordinc, and thus far, although
it has registered great many thousand votes. it
has never made an error. Ii is - be added
that. so far as we have seen. no attempt has
been made from any point Of view to dscredit
the machno.
Possibly more exhaustive test in the great
cities will not be so favorable 10 the new in
vonton Bur. that j. not likely. II has evil
IDENTITY come to stay because it deserves u stay.
OF course il will not be generally adopted
unless assurance OF its merit is made doubly
sure, since our people are naturally and very
properly inclined to 90 slow in all matters
relating 10 the exercise Of one Of the most
pl ecious of their fundamental rights