The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-14

John Curran. secretary of the Pop
ulist state central committee, has re-
ceived sufficient returns from. over the
state as to the number of ballots re-
jected as defective in the recent election
to make an approximate estimate as TO
the total number thrown out and to
what party they belonged. Taking Mr.
pCurran's figures as a basis, there were
about s74OO votes thrown out. divided
among the various parties as follows:
Democratic ......-.--.--.. -..-.-. 1o'vvo 'Vo
Republican ......-.... ...-..-..- 6,0U0
SOCIALIST ..--.-----.--.--- 1900. z'Voo 'oo
Prohibition ..--....-. l,4OO
The indications now are that the face
of the returns will give Bailey plu-
rality of Al. 600. If all the rejected votes
that show the intention of the voter were
counted it would reduce this number
%, 900, which would still leave Bailey
plurality of 10000
Mr.. Curran's idea in gathering lhe
data which he is receiving is to show the
number of voters who were dlSfran-
| ehised by the new ballot law. and also
to show that the fusionists were not so
terribly showed under after all. he
says:
ABOUT three weeks before election
blanks were provided to special watcn-
ers at every polling place In the state
which when filled out would show the
vote on governor, congressman and rep
resentative and also the number or Dal-
lots rejected, the reasons for their re-
lection and for whom they were IN
slowly, but I am now in position to
give figures on enough precincts to show
the approximate result
| Returns have been received from
/. 800 of the ?, 800 precincts. They show
that In these precincts %, ,240 votes We're
thrown out. an average of over 10 10 the
precinct. OF these about 1900 were
| Democratic and Populist votes, 3.500
were Republican, 100 were Socialist ana
! 800 were Prohibition. The great ma
| jority of the reports having come from
] the thinly populated districts and with
1 the heavy precincts yet to hear from,
| I figure that there were between 81. 600
1 and &C. coo votes thrown out on which
the voter had plainly expressed his in
| tent.
"A large majority of the ballots were
rejected. according to the reports, on ac-
count OF the voter having voted for No
nomination, and vast majority OF
ballots Some fusion ballots were re
| jected for marking in the circle and
then marking in a square in the same
column Many Republicans voted in the
circle and then went over and voted for
Mr. Craddock, Mr.. Doster. Mr.. Hefie-|
bower and others. Many Populists voted
the blank Peoples ticket Many Re
publicans attempted to vote the fusion
state ticket and then vote the ReDub-
lican county ticket In all these cases
the entire ballot. state and county, was
thrown out, although all agreed on Wnat
the voter intended.
Nearly all the Socialist votes which
were thrown out were lost on account
of voting for No nomination. Their
ticket was not complete and it was
very easy to mistake the words No
nomination for a candidates name.
The Prohibition vote was also lost
mainly on this account.
THE law is a veritable death trap
1t was deliberately planned to prevent
~ -rfn Y3o
his will. Those who voted the straight
ticket in the circle were the only ones
who were in no danger of having their
ballots thrown out The words No
nomination were printed in the same
style and size of type as the names
of the candidates, and squares were
placed after the words for no other
reason than to entra2 the voter into
spelling his ballot. The ballot was
such a puzzle that thousands of them
were placed in the box by voters with
not a SINGLE mark upon them to show
for whom they intended to vote. Voters
were ashamed to say they did not
know how to vote it and so said moth
ing but put their ballot in the box un-
marked.
independent voting is not practical
ble under this law. 1t says to the vo-
ter vote it straight or not at ALL Those
Republicans who voted against Kelly,
against Luling, against Burch, can
have the satisfaction of knowing that
over one-half of their ballots were ru-
med Those who wished to vote for
Judge Doster had two-thirds of their
votes thrown out. Republicans who
wished to vote for Senator Harris by
voting for a fusion representative, can
console themselves with the thought
that at least part of their votes went
the way they were intended to go.
Il am fully satisfied that if the bal
lots cast which were intended for Mr..
Craddock had been counted for him,
he would have had a comfortable ma
1oritv. am satisfied the if these No
nomination rejected ballots were
counted for the men for whom they
were obviously intended. we would
have from two to three hundred more
county officers to our credit. We lost
at least two congressman through the
ballot law and enough legislators to
have carried the house. These are bold
statements but the actual figures haseo
upon returns now on file in this Office
shows them to be true
"A majority of Kansas voters who
voted this year voted against the I;e-
publican party: it remains to be seen
whether the people will humbly bow tc
the practices which resulted in thaS
majoTity's defeat
E. A. Enright who has been elected to
the legislature from Wyandotte county.
has come out for Senator j. K. Cubbison
for United States senator. Enright mas
always been counted in the Curtis column.
This will probably make Cubbson sure of
two votes
Andy Richards has been claiming that
Sumner county's representative would line
UP for Long all right in the legislative
caucus But it seems that at least one Of
them has got away from Andy DR.. E.
G. Farris. one of the two Sumner county
members-elect. is in Topeka and has given
out his intention of supporting Stanley.
Senator Simons of Sumner county has
been openly supporting Stanley for sew
eraI months.