The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-10-08
TO BE EIGHT TICKETS
On the Official Ballot Some
Without Reason.
Several Of the Tickets Merely
To Fool Voters.
Each Ticket, Some Of Them Nomin-
atsd by Conventions Of Less Than
80 Delegates, Adds Thousands
of Dollars to the Expense.

Assistant Secretary of state Slower
has been doing some figuring i'm regard
to the cost of advertising the ballot for
the coming election in the papers OF
each county as required by law. He es
Inmates that the entire expense of such
advertisement viii, if charged for at
the legal rates. be about S60.5O0. The
and will be divided into eight columns,
one for each OF the parties that has
filed a separate state or electoral ticket
III MT. StOVer's figures are correct,
and it is said by, others raat they are
TOO small. each column Of the adver-
Csement or in other words each separ-
ate ticket will cost the tax payers OF
the state about the sum OF 3 900 OF
the eight tickets that VIII appear on the
ballot il viii not surprise anyone but
the people that filed five Of them IL the
average vote OF five of them is n0r
mo re than 1000 or an aggregated 10000
votes for the whole five or course IL IS
legal for any convention of 20 or 80 men
that can pay railroad rare to any one
town In the state or, what is better hold
the railroads up for passes TO meet IN
convention and nominate q ticket and
give the people of the state a chance to
vote for that ticket. But it is rather
to foot the bin for the advertising OF
the ticket alone not to mention the
subsequent extra expense of putting
the ticket on the regular ballot and dis
tri buting the same. The advertising
the ballot in the papers is only one OF
the minor expenses. I'm Shawnee coun-
ty which cast 11,3O3 votes alt the last
election it is necessary to print $4,000
ballots to comply with the law.
As each ticket takes up One-eighth Of
the whole room on the ticket each tick
ct that is fled adds its prOpOrtiOnare
share of the paper thar is required TO
be used, and this in itself is quite an
item.
The reason that it is necessary to
,rfr nl Telsr
requires that there shall be one hun
dred ballots given to the judges of the
election in each precinct for every so
votes or fraction thereof that were cast
in that precinct at the preceding cleo
ton. The law also provides that the
county clerk shall keep supply on
hand 80 that he can replace the ballots
that are lost or injured For instance
Ia ROssville township in this county
there we're cast at the last election 400
votes. the county clerk VIII deliver to
the judges nine hundred ballots and
VIII have to keep nine hundred more
on hand 10 supply the commissioners
in case all We're lost or destroyed. The
division of the state in to precincts
makes it necessary 40 print and circu-
late a greater number of ballots than
are used. and it is impossible to esti-
mate. but it is certain that there viii
have to be at least one and a half mill
lion ballots printed And each ticket
that is In the field viii be responsible
for its proportion Of the expense
It is also impossib BILE to say how much
the average cost of printing the ballots
per thousand will be in this county, the
tickets that are used in the city cost at
the last election IS 80. while those used
in the country cost So
In other counties that have neither
the facilities nor the competition in
the printing business that we have, the
charge varies, i'm some cases going as
high as SIS. AT the average rate that
will be charged It is safe TO say thar
the proportion of expense to each of
the eight tickets for ballots viii be So
coo.
The Democratic and Populist parties
are responsible fer TWO of the eight
tickets that Will appear on the ballot.
This is one more ticket than is neces-
sary. They could get their ticket be-
fore the voters ia one ticket just as
we'll The Republicans are responsible
for three of the tickets on the ballot,
one Republican, one National Demo-
cratic GOLD and the middle of the road
Pop. ticket The various temperance
elements Of the state are responsible
forthrae tickets The reason that each Of
the parties has to have more than one
ticket On the ballot, either i'm their own
name or in the name of some other
party, is because the party leaders
think that the voters of the state have
not enough sense TO vote the ticket Of
their choice. and so they seek by this
method TO fool them into voting some
ticket that viii accomplish the end
that they (the leaders, are seeking to
up to the polls and vote some one of the
eight tickets. and they VIII also have to
pay the expenses of the election 1t is
all right for the central committee of
one party TO buy banners to be hung up
for some other little party. because
that comes out of the campaign fund
of the party, but when it comes to each
party putting half a dozen tickets in
its own interest on the ballot at an
enormous expense to the tax payers
the question is. have the people a right