Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-06-09
They oppose the New ,,allo, Law.

Inc D6lhWarean, We Dolleye, la the
only Democratic paper in the State
that defends tbs new Ballot law. All
the othrra oppose it, and some Repub
liuan papers are independent enough to
urge the Governor to veto it, notwith.
standing that it utiers a tremendous
partisan advantage to their party.
mong the sound Democratic paners
that oppose the law 10 the Lewes Pilot,
which says;
The nav Ballot bill is very readable
and upon the surface satisfactory. pro-
yded you do not examine il closely and
do not read between the lines. The
outside Of the platter, so to speak, is
kept very clean, but tho internal
arrangement indicates lack of care
as TO the minutia. Some of the pro,
visions are very good, and il they could
be adopted would be an improvement.
While there 10 great care taken in the
preparation OF the official envelope--a
minor consideration of the bill, the
weightier matter of the ballot, the very
important factor that tells, il left open
to all sorts of schemes OF the munipu-
latur of devices and opens the door to
fraud in various ways. 1t may not be
necessary at this time to state the gap
ways that lead to this conclusion. The
old law under which We have been
voting was objectionable 10 regard to
the size of the ballots and the expense
in preparing them. Tho repeal Of the
section relating to voters ASSISTANTS,
thus doing away with these two officers
removed the most serious obstacle to
honest elections. The design of the
new Constitution ia to eradicate the
Wholesale System OF bribery Of voters
with which we have been go long
afflicted. Ii would seem to be folly,
therefore, at the first election Under
the now charter to open wide the gates
and bid as it were for continuance
of the methods OF corruption. Under
the old law the voter would have to
depend upon his own judgment, ON his
uniniluenced opinion while in the
voting room. While under the new
bill he simply puts in ticket fur
nished him by an outside party, with
certain conditions. 10 many instances.
This old law will perplex tho political
trickster and protect tho nurity of the
ballot, while tho new bill offers several
methods Of dishonest voting because
there are loop-huleE in ii that cause
much satisfaction among certain
AND the Sussex journal OF Georpe.
town, also Democratic paper, OPPOSES
the new law IN this manner:
We think it waa a great error mads
by the Legislature in allowing tbs
different political parties 10 priut THAR
own ballots. THIS will leave the gan
open for the parties printing the tickets
to place their marks thereon, and thus
m n m No.
chasRble Voter cast his ballot, II NAV
have been we'll to have uhangee from
the blanket ballot to the single bajlot
but the State should print the ballots
and not leavs it to every person or mar
SONS, who choose, 10 print THAR nwn
ballot. True, the paper must be of a
uniform kind, and must be oltaio,d
from the State, or rather, it ia 10 he
provided by the State. but that will be
OF little consequence 80 lung as tina
printers are at libarty to put the marty
or individual mark upon the ballot as
ii is printed.
by this change of the law the Ranub.
licans are given another cnance OF in
Huencing voters by their exbanatless
means OF corrupting money. WhiIa
none OF the parties have been puiltIesa
OF using money for corruption purnos.s
In this State, yet it is a notorious fact
that the Republican party has besn the
worst in this line. II the Democratic
party has bought hundreds OF voters.
the Republican party has bought
thousands.
While the Australian ballot law bos
not done all that was expeated OF if,
yet We think it was bad chang, ~
delegate to private individuals the
printing of tho ballots. This nav
system OF voting has done much ~ do |
away with vote buying, Of at Ieast n
make vote buying uncertain and mn.
reliable, from the fact that tbo n,r.
chaser could not bs absolutely certain
an to how the voter cast his Lallnt
Ine worst evil of the whole system WI.
the voters assi#tant. With this nart
OF the law struck our, we could he r r
tent, Tor one election, to see its vo og
Ings. ''' "o'h-
Happily We have in the Consti,u
non very stringent provisions avsinst
or ,,i AZ elections, which ought and