The San Francisco call., 1899-03-08

elected delegates by the Election Com
missioners or the governing body Of the
city or town.
Heretofore primaries were absolutely
controlled by. the party holding them, the
precinct officers were usually paid with
political promises, all the expenses of the
ganization holding the same and the
whCle proceeding was generally viewed as
farce, played to delude the honest
voter.
All political parties entitled to party
designation on the ballots for the regular
election are to be entitled to the same
privileges on the primary election ballots
after filing the proper papers with the
Secretary of State. On the governing
committees Of the various political paTtles
will fall the duty of apportioning the dele
gates. Should there be any failure TO
make such apportionment by the commit
tee the power is given TO the election COM
State, district and local primaries are to
be held on the second Tuesday OF August
of the year in which the election Tor
State. district or county ofncers is 10 pc
held City primaries will be held on the
sixth Tuesday next preceding the election
for city or town officers.
Fifteen days notice by publication in
newspaper must be given OF the primary
The balloting will be on the Australian
plan. Names for delegates may be writ
ten on the primary ballot with pen or
pencil. or may be pasted upon 1t. voters
can vote for as many delegates as thelI
ballots must not be marked with the
names Of delegates to more than one con-
vention. Ballots which snow thaL VoLer
has marked a mixed ticket Will be dlsre-
garded. All the names marked must pc
long to one party.
All persons entitled to vote at regular
election shall be entitled TO vote at the
primary. No other qualification can pc
exacted. This does away with the p!edge
to support the party ticket, heretofore IN
Regfstration of voters must be made
possible at least siXty-f1Ve days peIore Ihe
primary election.
A majority of the delegates CHOSEN shalI
| be a quorum of the convention.
Then to make more emphatic the com
| pulsory character of the law there IS TINS
| provision, which is considered as a haro
! blow at piece clubs
mo convention shall be recognized as
| in law entitled to make nominations un-
| less the delegates thereto were elected
under and by virtue OF the provisions Oh
| this act"
| ton officers who shall willfully fail or re-
| fuse to act shall be deemed guilty of a
misdemeanOr and shall be punished by
| fine of not less than $50 and not more than
$780, or by imprisonment for not less than
! five days nor more than twenty days, or
! by both fine and Imprisonment. All acts
declared to be offenses against the gen
eral election laws are made offenses
| against the primary election law, with
! the same penalties attached.
| Chairman A. j. Raisch of the Republi-
can County Central Committee was en-
! thusiastic in his expectations of what the
new primary law is TO accomplish in the
way oI puIlIylng poltlcal metnqqs. >, -
Z believe il is a very good thing, he
said, and Will tend TO purify political
practices. 1t will be an incentive to every
citizen to work and vote at the primaries
with the object of having good people rep
resent them at the conventions.
LAS / understand this law, the primaries
of all the parties will be held at the same
time and everybody who is qualified to
vote at all will be permitted to vote at
the primary. This will give the people the
opportunity TO select the best men to rep
resent them at the conventions. Hereto
fore the men elected a primaries were put
up by the political tricksters, and the
! bosses and cliques or few persons in the
district who were really a disgrace to the
people. The primary ticket would be
| made up frequently of persons who were
unknown to the decent voters of the pre-
cinct, and in many cases they did not even
! reside in the district. Under the new law
all this will be changed"
| Seth Mann. chairman of the Democratic
! State Central Committee, was no less
| spartng of good words for the proposed
After reading the new primary law
! over several times he remarked, Il
came to the conclusion that it is as good
/ a system as can be devised for the pur-
/ pose of a compulsory primary election.
The law has been drafted in such a way
mentioned in the decision of the Supreme :
! Court when the tU-lner Stratton primary
! law was declared invalid. 1t has been
/ very carefully drawn and in such a way
! as to preserve all the rights of the differ
| ent political parties. 1t has passed the
! close scrutiny of many able lawyers and
I of many experienced and astute politi-
! clans. I think it would be very much to
| be regretted if the Supreme Court should
! for any reason decide it to be unconsti-
tutional."
what effect will this new law have on
! the local election this fall?' he was
| asked.
ut must necessarily depend upon the
! Francisco Hitherto the complaint has
/ been made. and was justified that it was
neither pleasant nor safe for citizens TO
| vote at primaries, but under the protec-
/ for~the Australian ballot system, it will
! be perfectly safe for citizens to go to the
! booths and cast their votes for delegates
| 70 the convention of their party There
! fore no publiC-spirted citizen can longer
! have any excuse for not participating in
/ the primaries"
what will be the effect on boss ruIeo.'
| Il think it will tend more than any
| thing else" replied Mr.. Mann. Ito pro-
| duce a convention representative of the
! to the polls and vote. If they don't the
! results will be the same as in the past.
/ The only thing the Legislature can do is
/ to furnish the means by which the citi-
| ZenS can protect themselves against the
| Vaccinations of the bosses. If they do
not see fit to take advantage of the law
provided in such cases then they are the
! only ones to blame"
! Should the StrattOn law remain on the
| statute book the primary for the first
! August and registration Will begin on
! June B. or within less than three months
| from this time.