The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-12-27

The New York state constitution as
amended by the recent convention and
indorsed by the people, provides that
il the legislature shall 30 direct the vot.
ing Of municipalities, towns and villages
can be done with the aid Of voting ma
chimes instead OF by ballot. The sancity
and prestige Of the ballot which the
American people have upheld for more
than century, will therefore be only a
memory in New York If the legislature
in its wisdom DEGREES that the new fam
gled and ingenious machine instead of
the sheet OF paper, shall register the
will OF the voter. The virtual sancity
Of the ballot will still remain, but the
privilege of voting will be given in such
a modified form that some new expires
sions must be coined.
The astute gentleman Of the constitut.
ional convention, who recognized the
value of the voting machine, may be
deemed the pioneers in a movement
which will certainly be of magnitude
in the United State in the future. The
voting machine will surely supplant
the ballot system. Stage coaches gave
way to railroads The telephone invades
the sphere of the telegraph, the type.
writer is making chirography unfashion.
able, and therefore we have thousands
of precedents for the modern voting ma.
chino doing away with the antiquated
ballot. That our readers may know
what the New York constitution makers
had in mind, we append description
OF the voting machine now recognized
as the most perfect of the time.
Under the voting machine plan or
system, the electors will find at each
polling place sheet iron structure five
feet square and seven feet high. There
will be two doors, one for entrance and
another for exit of the voter. Inside
the box, beyond the scrutiny of all and
entirely alone, the voter will solve the
problem of his vote. On the wall oppo.
site the doors will be seen several rows
of knobs. By each knob will be the
name of the candidate and each party
has row OF its own. Lhere will be
colors to designate the party row for the
illiterate. The man who wants to vote
a straight ticket can do so by pulling a
lever over his party's row; he who
wants to split his ticket can do so by
pressing the knobs of the candidates,
regular or independent. He can vote
but once, for the mechanism is 30 ingen.
ious that when he votes straight tick
ct or for idividual candidates, on two or
more tickets, the other row OF knobs
for the other candidates become locked.
1t is an infalible one-vote system and no
fraud can be registered. The voter can
re yister. his will quickly and as he pass
es out Of the door, the voting machinery
is released and the Doth is ready for
the next p:an Th,. vOte', it should be
explaine . arr esi.tered very much as
cash register works. The knob is
pressed and a vote for the candidate
named is registered. This counting ar.
ransement cannot be reached by any
other than an inspector of elections and
so the sancitity of the counts supposed
to be inviolate.
1t can readily be seen that such a
voting machine is great time saver.
Two men it is estimated, can vote in one
minute and that would provide for L.
200 voters in ten hour voting day,
number greatly in excess OF the usual
present ::registration in Ohio. Provis
ions seem to have been made for all
kinds and conditions of voters in this
New York voting machine law. The
blind, the emily one at positive disad-
vantage, are assisted to vote by an in.
spector.
1t is claimed for this voting machine
that It's integrity cannot be impeached,
that there can be no fraud chargeable
to the machine, since the registration
feature of the election laws will remain,
that 1t will save time, trouble and ex-
pense. When the polls close the inspec-
tor reads the result srom the automatic
register, filling in blank with the vote
each candidate has received, can return
it quickly to election headquarters. OF
trouble there could be none, because
the machines could be closely watched
and tampering with the mechanism is
almost impossible. The saving OF money
would be made in the reduction of the
great cost OF printing ballots, of working
election judges and clerks and the items
which always made an election an ex-
pensiye thing. Although the machines
would cost $3.50 each, New York City
alone would save 100000 every general
election by their use.
The machines have been thoroughly
kaoloA L. "a L. eo..-I