Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-20
TRIED THE PRI MARY LAW.

TRIED The PRl MARY LAW.
Since the Iowa legislature is engaged
in a discussion of bill to establish a
primary election law 1t will be inter-
esting to note what is thought of a
similar law in the neighboring state OF
Minnesota. The Gopher state has a law
which requires all political parties to
make nominations by a primary cleo
ton to hold the primaries of all parties
on the same day at the same polling
places. Every voter is registered and
his choice of party likewise recorded
and then he is given the ticket of his
party upon which he may vote for the
candidates OF his choice.
This is a recent law and one of the
few first primaries under it's provisions
Tuesday for the nomination of candi-
dates for the city election. Thus tested
and tried the Pioneer Press says edi-
torially of the law:
The direct primary system has for
the third time been tried in Minnesota
city and found more than satisfactory.
In all parts of the city and in districts
inhabited by all classes of people.
judges of election reported late yester-
day that there had not been a voter
who preferred the old convention sys-
tern. There were in short only two
causes for complaint. In almost every
precinct there were a large number of
voters who objected because they had to
TO take either the republican or demo-
cratic ticket. They argued that there
We're good men on both tickets for
whom they wished to vote; they were
in the habit OF voting for the candidates
of both parties and they could see no
reason why they shouldn't have a
chance to help nominate the candidates
of both parties. While there was I'M
doubleday a large element of good hard
sense in this contention, the notion that
voters of one party should participate
in the primaries of the other is so re-
pugnant to accepted political notions
that 1t would probably be useless to
contend for--or at least 1T will be very
difficult to secure, that right, even in
municipal elections, where the aues-
ton of party ought to cut but little
figure. Even under the Minneapolis
plan mixed voting was guarded against
by the requirement that only that ballot
should be counted upon which the voter
had marked the greatest number of
votes.
lf,f ,,n cnrfn fcI nc of On
plant was that the voter had to openly
declare his utilization in choosing be-
tween the tickets. While many lodged
a protest because the ballot was not Sc
cret hardly or 3 per cent of those
registering refused to vote. There is
little doubt, however, that a large per-
centage of the stay-at-home vote was
the result of unwillingness to make
known party affiliation.
That any voter should be disfran-
chised by device which can be easily
overcome without detriment to the
party organization is an evil to be cor
rected The Pioneer Press has always
protested against tearing away from
the veil of secrecy that the Minnesota
law threw about the primary ballot, and
that protest has been echoed by Choir
us from every precinct in the city
acquired to warrant the refusal of
ballot to the voter who for one reason
or another desires to conceal his party
affiliations. AS a citizen the question
of nomination is as important to one
man as to another, and whether he be
an intense partisan or voter 50 inde
pendent that he finds 1t difficult to
choose between the parties, he should
not be compelled to make known his
party. Yesterdays complaints and yes
terday's stay-at- home vote show that
the primary ballot should be as secret
as the final ballot
But the significant result of yester-
days investigation was that among all
the two or three hundred men who
voiced their own opinions or the opin-
ions of the hundreds whom they had
talked with there was not one who
wanted to return to the convention sys-
TEN. The voting was rapid, the ballots
end arrangements We're even more con-
venient than at the regular election,
and the expressions of endorsement
were emphatic and unequiyocal The
vote cast was heavy even in wards
where the contests We're not interesting.
1t was several times larger than any
that was ever polled by both parties
under the old style primary, where to
vote was simply to indorse one or two
candidates at the most, and trust to
luck and the combinations of the con-
vention floor for the rest of the ticket.
Yesterday proved that the voter has on
ly4been waiting the opportunity to reg