Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-02-11
VOTING MACHINS

| A great deal used to be said about
| some men being mere voting machines
Since the Australion ballot system
came into vogue the machine element
in voting has largely passed away
! But now machine voting is al | the
rage, or at least a matter of wide dis
cussion. But this time it is not the
man who is referred to as the voting
machine. The voting machine makes
anything but machine, out of the
voter. In fact it requires some in
telligence on the part of the voter
to operate a voting machine. ~ The
voter becomes a typewriter TO some ex-
tent button pusher in reality. The
voter pushes the buttons and the vot-
ing machine does the rest. And the
voting machine is the political ma
chine of the fortune There is no
doubt about it. If we must have ma
chine politics We can in no better way
indulge in it than tc put a voting ma
chine in every precinct. 1t saves time
and money and prevents all mistakes.
The voting machine consists of a series
of automatic counters, arranged not
much unlike a cash register, with but
tons or keys for each candidate on the
ballot. These keys or buttons may be
arranged on the voting machine in ex-
actly the same order or relative posi-
ton as the names on an official ballot,
the sample ballots may be taken into
the voting booth, the same as now,
from which the voter can see how to
push the button the same as he now
makes his crosses. The name of the
candidate is printed on the button, so
that, in reality, all the voter has to do
is to press the button of the candidate
he desires to vote for, and the vote is
recorded in the Counting mechanism
attached to the button. The machine
is also arranged so that by pressing the
party button at the top of the column,
the voters vote it recorded for all the
candidates in that column. the same as
a cross at the top now indicates a vote
for the straight ticket. Therefore a
| man who votes straight will only have
to press single button, the same as
now he needs only to make a single
cross. The greatest convenience of the
voting machine is in the counting.
/
the night or until morning for the in
spectators to count the ballots, many
OF which are very indefinitely marked,
and the tired and sleepy inspectors
are liable to all sorts of mistakes in
checking up the tally sheets and count
ing the ballots. 1t is long, tedious
and annoying task. With the voting
machine it is altogether different The
pressure of the buttons in voting SIM
ply actuates the mechanical counters
in the machine, and when the polls
close the machine is unlocked and
opened, disclosing OF: the dals of the
counters the exact total vote cast or
rather the total number of button
pushes for each candidate. The count
ing is automatic, the result of the vote
IN the precinct is known and an
nounced the moment the polls close
and the door Of the machine is unlock
ed. With voting machines in every
precinct, it would be possible to know
the result of an election for president
within half an hour after the polls
throughout the country had closed.
And then there is another advantage
OF the voting machine. Returns could
not be doctored When the polls close.
turn Of an inspectors key locks the
mechanism so that it can not be OPP
Grated. The vote as registered on the
dlals cannot be altered and the ma
chine thus locked and blocked can be
delivered to the proper canvassing
board, the same as official returns are
y1n n oil
other improvement which will come
with the voting machine, and that is
uniform hour for closing the polls.
That is, figuring the difference of time
| from east to west, it can be arranged
so that the polls will close at the same
I instant in every precinct in the United
| States. This would prevent returning
boards, or inspectators, or other can
wasting bodies from knowing in adj
vance what the vote was in some other
state or precinct before counting their
own, and deprive any one fraudulentIy
inclined of the opportunity to falsffys-
returns to meet the necessities of an
adverse vote somewhere else. All re-
! turns would be known at the same in
slant and telegraphed TO a central
point where in a few minutes the re-
suits would be complied; and the lock-
ed machines would be iron-cIad wit
| nesses of the eternal truth There is
opportunity for a great revolution in
| our election machinery by the adoption
Of the voting machine Accuracy,
promptness, unifemity, simultaneous
ness and surety against frauds are
some of the advantages of the voting
machine and the systems that accom-
pany it. The voting machine is sure
to come. The American people will
never ignore a thing that embodies so
many vements-Oshkosh North
western.