The morning call., 1895-01-24
union LEAGUE CLUB.
The Movement Against Gross
Election Frauds.
THEY MUST Be LOOKED INTO.
Proposed Changes in the Australian
Ballot System.
OUR ELECTIONS TOO EXPENSIVE.
The Clubs Movement Is an Independent
OUR ELECTIONS TOO EXPENSIVE.
The Clubs Movement Is an Independent
One in the Interest Of Coed
Government.

cit is the purpose of the Union League
Club to appoint and maintain committee
that shall make it its duty to watch over
State and city affairs and prevent as far
as possible a repetition of the gross frauds
committed during the last election re-
marked ex-Judge M. Cooney, when seen
in his Office in the Phelan building yester-
day and asked what progress the club had
made in the matter of investigating frauds
in the matter of conducting and declaring
the result of the election held on the 9th of
last November.
'tThe committee of which / am men,
Der, at the meeting held Tuesday evening,
presented report in which it was set forth
that great frauds had been committed at
the last election, and asking the Legisla-
ture to appoint committee of seven, three
from the Senate and four from the Assem-
bly,, such committee to have but one San
Francisco Senator and but one San Fran
cisco Assemblyman, to meet In this city,
be empowered to call for persons, books,
papers and ballots, recount the ballots cast
for State officers and take steps to bring to
justice those who have been guilty of com
hitting the frauds we know have been
committed. This committee is to meet
Immediately after being named and con-
clude its work so that it can present its
report within thirty days after appoint
ment.
"This is in the interest of pure reform"
continued Mr.. Cooney, "and not in the in
terest of any one individual; we have no
Governor to unseat, nor have we a Gov
ernor to seat. Great frauds have been
brought to light, and we are determined,
if we can, to have the perpetrators of such
frauds punished.
seWas that all our report included? No;
we also called attention to the defects in
the Australian ballot system under which
we are working, and showed thatit is cum
bersome, expensive and should be amend
ed. 1t is the general opinion of the COM
mittee that the expense of conducting an
election can be reduced at least one-haf.
Why, see the cost of the last one held here,
something like $250,000."
Mr.. Cooney then explained that the re-
port was the subject of discussion, and it
was suggested that the ticket in its present
form was confusing to the average voter.
The present method of placing the names
of candidates for any Office one under the
other should be abolished and in its place
there should be one by which the party
tickets should be printed side by side, each
having over it the party designation. By
this method, it was stated, voter could
fill out his ticket in one-haf the
time now occupied. One member
of the club offered a remedy for the
present defect in the matter of counting
and declaring the results of an election.
He said that the city should be DIVIDED
into districts, each polling-place in dis
trict should be visited hourly by COM
mittee composed of members of each party,
who should have power to collect from the
election officers all ballots cast up to the
time of visiting the po'ing-place, these
should be placed on a properly sealed
envelope and taken to some central point
and turned over to the Election ComnlIs-
sioners or to a specially appointed COM
mittee, who in turn would deliver them to
a set of clerks working in its presence, who
should count them, each district being
counted by a separate set OF clerks. The
counting should be done in a grilled room
so the public might have an opportunity
to see what was being done. By this
method with comparatively small force
of competent clerks the work of counting
could be kept up without interruption and
the result made known in from twelve to
twenty hours after the polls closed. The
speaker declared that this system would
do away with the possibility of tampering
with the ballots and the returns. A COM
mittee appointed during the evening to go
to Sacramento to advocate change in the
ballot law and to urge the appointment of
a legislative committee was requested to
lay these ideas before the Legislature.
As soon as the report of the committee
had been adopted, the following was unani-
mously adopted:
WHEREAS 1t has been made manifest to mem
bers of this club that gross frauds were perpe-
trated in counting the ballots east for State
officers in the city and county of San Francisco
at the last election, and that in making up, re-
porting and canvassing the returns of the same
gross frauds and errors were likewise perpe-
trated and committed and whereas, the bold
and startling character of such fraudulent
practices and unlawful methods is well cal