Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-08-14
THE AUSTRALIAN BALLOT.

THE AUSTRALIAN BALLOT.
The State election occurs three weeks
from to-day. There were four State
tickets placed in the field by conventions
representing respectively the Republi-
can, Democratic, Prohibition and Popu.
list parties. But three parties will, how
ever, be represented on the official State
ballot.
The Prohibitionsts failed to file a GER
tificate of their nominations of candi-
dates for State officers, as required by
law, and all who desire to vote the Pro
hibition ticket must write the name of
the candidates on the printed ballot.
The time for filing certificates of NOM
ination with the Secretary of State ex-
pired August 4th, the law requiring such
papers to be filed not more than 80 nor
less than 30 days before the day fixed for
the election.
The Populists are not fairly entitled to
have their nominations printed on the
official ballot, as they failed to comply
with both the spirit and intent of the
ballot law in the matter of securing sig
natures to their certificate of nomination.
Under the amended act a political party
must have cast one per centum of the
entire vote at the last State election in
order to make regular nominations to
public office. In the event of a party
failing to meet this requirement, it is
provided that certificate of nomination
may be filed if it shall be signed bv vOt-
ers residing within the political division
in and for which the officers are to be
elected, to the number of at least one
per centum of the entire vote cast at the
1n, nln 80
did not cast the required number of
votes in 1892, and consequently found it
necessary to secure the signatures of
something like 700 voters in order to
have their nominations printed ON the
official ballot.
The Populist State Committee, finding
1t impossible to secure the names of the
required number of voters of their own
faith, appealed to the voters of both the
Republican and Democratic parties to
help them out of their dilemma. Some
voters signed the certificate for a joke,
and others to rid themselves of the solic-
iting Populist In the town of Montpe-
lier alone, where there are not more than
score of Populists, over 400 signatures
were secured for the certificate of nomi-
nation.
While the law does not declare that the
signers must be of the same political
faith as the candidates certified to, there
can be no question that the trainers Of
of the law Contemplated that they would
be partisan petitioners. The spirit of
the law has certainly not been carried
out by avowed Republicans and Demo
Gratis signing Populist certificate of
nomination.
The Republican and Democratic certi-
ficates of nominations were all filed with
the Secretary of State according to law.
The Democrats of Windham county
are somewhat agitated over the fact that
they neglected to file their county ticket
with the County Clerk 80 days before
election, according to the statute. The
ticket was filed Monday, but should have
been filed Saturday. The clerks decided
that the Democratic nominations cannot
be printed on the official ballot. Of
course the Democrats had little hope of
electing any man on their ticket, but
they do not like the idea of some 10000
voters being disfranchised at the Sep.
tember election, unless they write their
choice on the ballot for county officers or
vote for the Republican nominations.
Republicans are naturally quite jubilant
over the situation. The local managers
of the Democratic party in Brattleboro
must be bright men.
And right on the heels of this comes
the report that the official ballot of Cal
edonia county will contain only the Dem
ocratic county ticket. The officials of
the Republican county convention neg
lected to file the nominations as the law
requires, but an attempt was made to
certify in the candidates by petition
of one per cent. of the voters of the
county. After it was filed last Friday
it was found to be one day too late. The
Republican managers will issue pastors
for the use of the voters of the various
towns, but, under the exceeding strict
ness of the law governing balloting, it is
feared that the pastors cannot be used
to the extent desired.
The managers of the Democracy came
near getting into a similar predicament,
being compelled to hold their county
convention a week earlier than it was at
first called, in order to satisfy the law.
This little episode goes to show that
there is no danger of getting too famil-
lar with the details of so important a
law, and the officers of nominating con-
ventions can afford to consult the stat
utes occasionally.
The amended Australian Ballot law
passed by the Legislature of 1892, will be
used at State election for the tirss time
in September. The amended law pro-
| vides that all the nominations OF each
| political party, except those for Repre-