The record-union., 1899-02-09
THE VOTING MACHINE.

present Legislature WHICH VIII iSdu ~
| the employment of some sort of voting
machine in our elections. 1t is, OF
course, important that the best ma
chine attainable shall ultimately be
adopted and that it's use shall be care
| fully protected by such safeguards as
now surround the ballot used in the
Australian method: but the mere mat
ter of few hundred or a few thou
sand dollars should not be allowed to
| defeat the end.
Voting machines have been used in
a number of cities in the East, and the
testimony goes to show that they pro-
vide a method of voting vastly superior
to the simple Australian system. This
is especially true Of the experience had
with them in Rochester, N. Y, at the
election last November. In that city
sixty-two candidates were in nomina-
tion for thirteen offices, and an average
| of 431 voters used each machine. The
! complete returns We're all in at CEN
! trail station within thirty seven minutes
| after the close of the polls, and every
one of the totals was recorded with alb
solute accuracy.
| California was in a fair way to test
the machine system this year, when
| shameful scandal connected with the
late Ballot Commission developed, and
after that the wholel thing was dropped,
no one caring to be related to any prop
ositfon made by that body. In the pres
ent Legislature the report is not sought
for, its recommendations are given no
thought, and the work Of the commits
sion during the past two years is prop
| erly enough treated as lost energy and
wasted effort.
( 1t requires considerable courage,
therefore, on the part of legislators to
| take up the subject, since the suspicion
of jobbery is SO apt to attach to the
most honest proposition to forward the
plan of testing in an actual election
machine method Several bills are be-
fore the houses, however, concerning
the matter, and some one of them
ought to pass. But no bill should be
made law that does not insure perfectly
fair play. Ample time should be given
to inventors to make and place a suffi-
cient number, if a working test at an
election is to be had.
As we understand it, none of the in
ies and but few have organized capital
| behind them to warrant the taking OF
large orders. 1t is essential, therefore,
| that full time be allowed for the poor
|
But if that is not to- be the plan: if
| the whole subject is to be committed to
a new committee of examination, then
that body must be one absolutely above
suspicion, and so safeguarded that no
tricks can be played upon it in order to
secure to schemers corner Of specula-
ton.
| We agree with the Times that it is
| of much less moment what method is
adopted to secure the end in view than
that the matter shall be passed over
and nothing done at this session. 1t is
of very small Importance as to who is
machine is adopted, compared with the
wisdom of getting the best for our uses,
and having such an early working test
as to put beyond dispute either the
wisdom or unwisdom of using ballot
machines
| If the proposed plan of having the
| Governor, Registrar of San Francisco
and the Attorney General compose the
;no,,;yxy r.o,,o ,,;t+oua y,roryoilc fhoro will
be general concurrence. But that COM
mittee ought, as our contemporary well
suggests, be given power, to follow the
New York plan. That is, they should
be backed by an Act authorizing them
to select any number Of machines of
! different patterns, and certain towns
and cities should be legalized in using
one or more such machines at local
elections to be held next year. AS the
Times" remarks:
| In that way a practical test might be
made without committing the entire
State at once to any single style of ma
chine. OF course, such experiments
should be surrounded by all possible
safeguards against fraud and error,
but that could be done by a carefully
prepared law governing the use of the
machines.
In this connection it is worthy Of espe-
cial attention that the machine system
has now been SO far developed that on
several machines, if not on most of
| them, a voter can do what it iAimpos-
sible for him to accomplish with the
hand stamp, namely, change his vote
in one or any number of respects be-
fore he leaves the booth.
Under the hand system the stamp
once applied, the mark cannot be re-
moved, and only under certain and rare
conditions can the elector negative the
marking and make new record. This
is therefore powerful reason for the
machine use. Another feature row in
chimes, is that which permits of straight
voting or single voting, at the will of
the elector, which, as will be realized,
does away with both the present form
| of the ballot and the parallel column
system advocated by the Record
Union,"- and in successful use in Indi-
ana, Iowa and other States, and for
which bill is now pending in the AS
sembly-a bill that should pass, nc
matter what is done about the ballot
machines.
|