The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-09
BALLOT MACHINES.

BALLOT MACHINES.
| All over the country the Australian
ballot has given satisfaction The
chief objection to it seems to be the
amount of time necessary to make a
count after the ballots are cast. Many
papers have commented upon this fact,
and most of them are saying, as The
Herald said the morning after the cleo
ton. that the next step in advance
should be the adoption of the ballot
machine.
A leading New York paper says that
there can be little doubt that future
improvements in voting methods will
be in the direction of machines. The
adoption of the blanket ballot, with it's
parallel columns of party tickets, has
| been long step in that direction, for
the machine simply hangs the blanket
ballot on the wall and supplies a knob
to be pressed in place of a pencil to
mark with The expense of printing
ballots, the annoyance and delay of
folding them, and delays and mistakes
in the counting are all eliminated by
the machine. The counting becomes
automatic and instantaneous. The re-
suit is ascertainable with unquestion-
able accuracy within few minutes
after the closing of the polls. There
can be no tampering with the count
and no disDuting of the returns, for
there are no ballots in existence to be
altered or wrangled over nothing but
the registered figures of the voting
No bribed voter can leave a trace or
sign of any kind as evidence to his
briber that he has kept his bargain.
The machine was tried in one or two
Michigan towns and in some of the
cities of New York; and with entire
satisfaction.
The Rochester Herald gives this ac-
count of how these ballot machines
work:
The names of candidates are ar
ranged in columns after the fashion
of the blanket ballot, with this distinc-
ton: On the official ballot the square
in which the cross must be marked
comes before the name of each candi-
date; on the Myers machine the but
ton that must be pressed follows the
name of each candidate. There is
SCeICCIy any QdlS6I OF CONFUSION mere,
as the party knob is in every case of
the same color as the party column.
The voting of a straight ticket with
the Myers machine is simplicity itself.
The various party columns are distin-
gUished by colors. The Democratic
color is yellow, the Republican red, the
Prohibitionist blue, and so on. At the
top of the Democratic column is a but
ton, which, upon being pressed in firm
ly until it remains fast, votes the
straight ticket. Having done this, the
voter walks out of the exit door Can
other door having been used for en-
trance) closes it behind him and his
vote is recorded.
Voting split tickets is a trifie more
difficult, but this. too, will be found
simple enough, if the voter keeps his
wits Sbout him. Suppose a Democrat
wishes to vote for a Prohibition can
didate for the assembly. In that event,
the first thing he does is to press in ]
the knob following the name of this
candidate. That action locks all the
buttons of the other candidates for this
Office, so that it would be impossible
to vote for two candidates for the same
place. Having done this (and he can
repeat the operation with other candi- +
dates for whom he might wish to
'split), the voter must now go back to .
the Democratic column and press all
the buttons following the names of the
Democratic candidates. Re
member that vote outside the party
column bars the use of the button at
the head of that column. Remember,
too, that where you vote for selected
candidates outside your party you must
invariably press their buttons first, and
then press in the remaining buttons
On your own columns.
There are several makes of these
all of about equal merit. 1t
would be worth while to try the ex-
pertinent of using them in Utah.
The election last Tuesday cost this
county approximately $4,000. Some of
hat expense viii necessarily be in
cured al each election. In the county
here are lightweight precincts. Bal
OF machines cost $3.50 apiece; $24, 900
would supply the whole county The
question is one well worth the serious
of the county.