Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-31
KANSAS SENATE COMMITTEE ON
ELECTIONS PREPARES 1T.
WILL BE INTRODUCED MONDAY.
MANY OF THE DEFECTS IN THE
PRESENT LAW REMEDIED.
Expense of Elections Much Reduced
New LAW Makes the Nomination
of n Ticket More Difficult
News of thc kansns
Legislature.

Topeka, Kas.. Jan. 30.-(Special) The SEN
ate committee on elections, after thorough
consideration of all the bills introduced
amending the Australian ballot law, mas
taken the good points out Of each and com
bined them into one bill-ai committee bill
and il will be introduced by Chairman
Young Monday.
The r,resent election law was drafted two
years ago, and the experience of three cleo
tions has shown mGuy defects Whtch the
committee hopes TO remedy in its blll- IN
the first place the section providing for the
publication of the ticket in papers IN each
county shortly before the election VIII DE
repealed in the proposed law, This sectlon
cost the people of Kansas $4,000 at the last
election, for that was the aggregate sum
charged by the newspapers for publishing
the ticket The wiping out of this sop Will
be hard on the weekly newspapers put
Senator Young says that 1t must go JUST
the same.
The next important amendment is the
fixing of a maximum rate for printing bai-
lots Some printers last fall charged as
high as $50 thousand for printing the
ballots. Under the proposed law the mex
iraum rate will be $40 a thousand for
tallot containing four TICKETS and an ad-
ditionaI sl5O per thousand for each addi-
tionaI ticket This rate applies to cleo
tIons which occur in even numbered years.
At elections held on off. years the price
will be IS per thousand for ballots con-
tanning four tickets and 81 additional for
each additional ticket.
In order 10 prevent the working Of the
endless chain racket in voting, as can
now be done, a provision is made for the
numbering of ballots When voter calls
for a ballot before going into booth
number is to be registered on the right
hand upper corner in ink. Then when the
voter turns it over 10 the judges to be de-
nestled in the ballot box, the number IS
clipped off, This preserves the secrecy OF
the ballot and at the same time, makes II
absolutely impossible TO work the endless
chain scheme. -
The bill also provides that the party
casting the highest vote at the first pre-;
10 the first column on the ballot, the party
casting the second highest vote the sec
ond column. and so on.
In order to keep the size of the ballot
within bounds the bill makes il more diff-
cult TO get a ticket on 1t. AT present,
whole state ticket can be placed upon tne
ballot in case crowd too small for q cor
noral's guard get together in convention
and nominate. The proposed law makes
Il Impossible for a party which ponea less
than 2 per cent of the entire vote OF tne
state at the preceding election to put a
state ticket in the field. and 1t requires the
signature of $500 voters TO nominate by pc
can be nominated by petition unless II is
signed by at least per cent of the voting
population in the district which votes ior
There will be no blank space left under
the name of each candidate. This VIII
shorten the ballot. In case a voter does
not desire to vote for any candidate OF
his party, he can skip over to a ''free-for,
all' column, which is provided Tor ana
write the name of the person for whom he
desires 10 vote. The square where the vot-
er makes his mark indicating his choice OF
candidates will follow Instead OF precede
The same. Each voter will be required to
mark his ballot with d black lead pencil;
another color of pencil OF ink invalidates
the ballot. ...,....-. J..
Senator Young stated to-day that he was
quite certain that the committee bill viii
become the law of the state, as 1t remedied
an the defects of the present law and
would throw all the safeguards possible
around the ballot.