The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-11-27
NEW ELECTION LAW.
The Gorman-Smith Measure Has
Not Entirely Fulfilled Hopes
of the Democrats.
BEEN TRIED TWICE AND FOUND WANING
The Law Has Been a Sore Disappointment
To the Leaders and They May Join
With the Republicans In Repeating it
When the Legislature Again Meets.

The Democratic election law has
been weighed by its sponsors and has
been found wanting. At two elections
it has been tried, and at each it has
failed to produce desired results. 1t
is true that last year, by the manipu
lation of trick ballots in Southern
Maryland by local boards of super
yisors, it aided in the election of a
few Democratic members of the legis-
lature. Those same trick ballots,
however, caused losses in Baltimore
city and elsewhere in the State which
did not compensate for the paltry
gains in Southern Maryland.
This year the failure of the law to
yield expected results was even more
evident than that of last year. On
the Eastern Shore and in Southern
Maryland, for the benefit of whose
local Democratic leaders the law was
especially designed, it fell far short of
its purposes. Indeed, the large in
crease in the Republican majorities in
those sections has led many Demo
Gratis to offer the possible explanation
aroused within the party law, and
which it had been hoped by the lead
ers would disappear after the election
of last year.
1t may be true that Democrats stay
ed at home because of this anger at
their party for placing the objection
able law upon the statute books.
There is one thing evident. The
Democrats, if in control of the two
branches of the General Assembly,
and if the governor is in sympathy
with them two years hence, will add
to the complication of the ballot as
now provided by law with view to
the entire elimination of the illiterate
vote, white and colored. Failing in
that, they may join with the Repub-
licans in striking the law from the
statute books. 1t has been a sore dis
appointment to the leaders. 1t has
given their opponents an inexhausti-
BILE supply of campaign ammunition,
while the Democrats have been plac-
ed on the defensive and have been
compelled to bear the brunt of the
fighting. The Republicans have ma
turly gained the advantage, which
came from the aroused anger of the
Democratic illiterates and their rela-
tives, but they have had the further
advantage of having large class of
voters not able to read, but who were
anxious to learn, and they seem, from
election results, to have been very apt
pupils.
The law, it is claimed by it's oppon-
ents, played an important part in
wiping out the Democratic majorities
which it secured last year in Southern
Maryland counties by keeping Demo-
Gratis at home. 1t reduced Democratic
majorities in Northern MARYLAND,
where the law was never popular.
On the Eastern Shore it played it's
part in Transforming Democrats in
to Republicans. Because of the few
names on the ballot it was not a
stumbling-block to those illiterates
who were willing to receive a few
minutes instruction. The colored il
hterates seem to have been willing to
take lessons, while the white litter
ates were not.
In another and important respect
the law has proven to be a dismal
failure. 1t has completely failed to
eradicate bribery, an evil which the
sponsors of the law claimed it would
cure. If it has checked the buying
and selling of votes even in the slight
est degree, that fact is not apparent
in those sections of the State where
the evil was said to be most rampant.
In the application of moderate in
telligence and of the ability to read
in marking the ballot the Democrats
have also been the losers. By the OBJ
servation made by Major Venable
during a recount of the ballots in the
Platt-Frank councilmanic contest in
Baltimore the fact was demonstrated
that in North Baltimore, which is
looked upon as the center of intelli-
gence and of learning in the city,
more errors were made than in other
districts less blessed with education.
The reason was obvious. Men who
thought they knew all about the bal
lot took no pains to study it. Those
who realized their short-coming tried
to correct it and with the result that
they voted correct ballot.
If within their power at the next
session of the legislature the Demo
Gratis may be relied upon to so amend
the existing law in ways which have