The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1896-11-03
BE CAREFUL HOW YOU MARK
YOUR BALLOT.


In every election held in this state
since the introduction Of the present
election law 1t has been found that
many ballots could not be counted by
the election officers because they were
marked in such a manner by the voter
as to make it impossible to determine
how the citizen intended to cast his
vote. Contrary as it may be to the
general impression. this difficulty in hg-
uring up defective ballots is not by any
means confined to those cast by igno-
rant or iIliterate voters, but is often due
to carelessness or misinformation on
the part Of men Of more than or
binary intelligence and education. In
the experience of election judges and
canvassers these mistakes are due to
the omission Of the educated classes to
make a proper study Of the ballot. and
their assumption that no instruction is
needed TO enable any person of intelli-
gence to pick out from a plainly print
ed list OF names and unmistakably des-
ignate the candidates of his choice. The
ignorant voter. on the other hand. is
usually suspicious of some trick which
may be played on him in the form of
his ballot or at any rate is so distrust
full Of his own power to discriminate
from the long and complicated sets Of
names which he sees upon the ticket
that he almost invariably asks the ad-
vice OF some friend either in or out Of
the polling place.
An examination of the form of ballot
provided this. year by Secretary Free
silver Kincaid shows that the party des-
ignation Of such Populists as Hofer and
the other Bryan electors on the ticket
rs printed with the word Republican
tackled on the end so as to bring this
misleading word directly in line with
the true party designation Of the four
Republican electors on the ticket.
Whether Kincaid arranged the ballot
this way for the express purpose of
knocking out or stealing the votes Of
Republicans in favor of Bryan is. Of
course, not now known; although it is
probable that is exactly what he intend
ed to do. 1t will be remembered that
the Democrats made a fight against the
use Of their party name in connection
with the Popocratic ticket and that
that fight was decided in their favor
by the attorney general Of the state,
but Kincaid, getting wind Of what Mr..
IdIeman's opinion would be, forwarded
his certified form Of the ballot to the
various county clerks before he could
be stopped. No objection seems to have
been made by any Republican to the
use Of that party's name in the form
Of the Popocratic ticket, notwithstand-
ing that II is ten times as Objectionable
cratic name. Fortunately, however. the !
fact that the names of the four Re- |
publican elecotrs come first on the tick |
ct makes 1t much easier to checkmate |
this POpocratic scheme that 1t might |
otherwise have been. The names Of
these electors appear in another part
of this mornings Astorian, followed by
the Populist electors, printed with the
same designation and in the same form
as they appear on the ballot. 1t can
thus be seen how apt a careless Re-
publican voter might be to mark his
ballot for eight electoral candidates,
because they all appear to have the
word Republican after their names. In
such case, it is hardly necessary to
say, the ballot can be counted for no
one, and the Republican so unfortunate
as TO make such mistake will have
voted to decrease McKinley's majority
instead Of increasing it by one as he
to do. Let each voter be care
ful TO remember for himself, and to in
struct every other Republican with
whom he comes in contact at the polls
today, that the way to vote for McKin-
ey is to make a cross opposite the first
four names on the ballot-stop right
here and fold up his ballot and hand 1t
n.