Evening star., 1901-11-09
THE MARYLAND BALLOT.
Democratic Supervisors Exhaust In.
genufty to Confuse.

Democratic Supervisors Exhaust In.
genufty to Confuse.
From the Pr iladelphia Press
Maryland has chosen a democratic legis-
lature largely as the result of the new elec-
tfon law which was passed especially to
bring about this result. This means the
election Of Arthur P. German to the United
States Senate and his rehabilitation as a
leader in the democratic party. 1t was pre-
dicted that this would result in bringing Mr..
German to the front a candidate for the
democratic presidential nomination In 1904.
Time will tell whether this prophecy will be
fulfilled. Mr.. German has gained the first
move in the game and he will make the
best possible use of his advantage Mary
land is not the most promising field from
which to build up presidential boom, but
it u.s. at least. starting point. The COM
fort the Maryland republicans have is ths
assurance that Senator Wellingtons term
is nearly at an end,
The Maryland ballot in its integrity con-
forms pretty closely to the genuine Aus
tralian ballot. Any one who krows for
whom he wants to vote and has sufficient
intelligence to read and make a cross uppo-
site the names ought to be able to prepare
his ballot for voting with entire accuracy
and reasonable celerity. The m Iddle head
ed and uniformed will probably always
make mistakes in voting the Australian ball
lot, while the unassisted ifiiterata mas no
show at all. II the Maryland balllt left
the determination of elections to the iatelli-
gent and instructed. without any PARTY or
race discrimination. Ii would DC entirtJy
defensible. But the ballots were prepared
by democratic supervisors, and the sample
Of their work reproduced by the BALTIMORE
News shows that they exhausted ingenuity
in devices to bewilder and confuse voters
They expected apparently that this badly
printed and confused kind OF ballot would
be. particularly bewildering TO colored vot-
ers, and that large numbers of them would
be unable to vote at all or that most OF
their ballots would be thrown out for being
incorrectly marked. They succeeded In \
measure In accomplishing their object ard
the election OF a German legislature was
doubtless due to such disfrsnchisemen.-
But fin gaining this point the ballot con-
fused and disfranchised many intelligent
voters.
Maryland's Mistake.
From the Philadelphia Times.
II the proof Of a ballot law be In the
balloting Maryland cannot too quickly
change the remarkable statute which was
passed by an extra session of the legis-
lature. called purposely to place restraints
upon the voting. The democrats who did
this work now realize that It was a mistake
and recognize the duty Of correcting II.
The change was related to the movement
throughout the south to get rid OF the ne
gro vote. While the democrats would not
admit 1t in 10 many words. yet they indi-
rectly confessed that such was their pur-
pose. There are different opinions among
both democrats and republicans OF the
south as to the wisdom Of disfranchisinG
the negro. and there is a very strong SEN
timent against doing II In any way except
through a disqualification of illiteracy. A
plain. honest law on those lines could not
be objected to. since such states as Con-
nectfcut and Massachusetts have had Il for
years, but the trouble comes when an effort
Il made to keep out the iliterate blacks
and at the same time keep In the fiiterate
whites. ts -.
In Maryland the trainers Of the new law
deserve prfxes for their bunGling.