The Portland daily press., 1898-10-17

The Augusta correspondent Of the Lew
fston Journal has discovered that the esti-
mate of the cost, direct and Indirect OF
the Australian ballot has been placed
about four times too high. With all due
respect to his opinion and Investigations
there is good reason to believe that q
strictly accurate account OF all the ex-
pense connected with the ballot would
reach the figure set by 1.-The enemies OF
the system.
This Is fine specimen of the method
adopted by those who are undertaking to
abolish the present ballot law. The
Maine Farmer starts a campaign against
the law, in the interest of the farmer of
course, and alleges that the law entails .
biennial expense to the Estate of $50, 600.
Why 1t hit on $4,000 it has never ex-
planned and it has never ventured to give
an itsnized accounts Of the COST. Now
few days ago correspondent Of the
Lewiston Journal made careful inquiry
at Augusta as to the expense of the sys.
tenn and reported inl his paper1 as fol-
lows:
The total cost of printing the ballots for
the September election was So, 308. 40.
This included the folding, which WAS
done by hand. At the secretary Of states
Office, learned that the total state appro-
priation is $500. This fully covers the
expense of printing and folding the bal
lots, packing and express charges, news
paper advertising, and all additional help
required at the secretary of states Office
on account of the official ballots. This is
all the expense Of the system to the state.
In getting at the total expense OF the
system, its enemies doubtless include the
expense it incurs to the cities and towns
This consists almost wholly of three extra
election officials for each voting precinct.
These men are paid in most of the coun-
try towns 81. so per day. In the cities they
get So per day. A fair average for the
state would be el.75 per day. There are
706 voting precincts In Maine. so that the
total expense Of those extra election OIL
cials to the cities and towns would be
So, 76O. 80. Tho only other expense is the
noon lunches supplied to election officials.
Two hundred dollars would, doubt ess,
be liberal estimate for this item. These
are all the expenses connected with the
ballot law in this state, which the officials
charged with Its administration have any
knowledge Of. and they make total OF
$la, 406. SO, or an average annual expense
of less than SO to each voting precinct IN
the state.
Here ia an itemized account of the ex-
penditure. If it is inaccurate it is
perfectly easy to show it; If it does not
cover all the cost Of the law, there is no
difficulty in pointing it out. But q
paper which has given currency to the
Maine farmers figures Of $4,000, in
stead of correcting them to accord with
the Journals figures, or pointing out
whore the latter are wro ng, proceeds cody
to ASSERT that despite the Journals
showing which it does not undertake to
disprove in any particular, "there is good
reason to believe" that the Maine Farm
er's figures are correct Having started
off with telling the farmers that the Aus
tralian law costs four times what is it's
actual expense the opponents of the law
feel that they must stick to it. no matter
what the proof to the contrary. Fortu-
natetly there are plenty Of ways of cor
recting the misinformation which they
have disseminated and which they are
evidently not disposed to correct them
selves,