The professional world. (Columbia, Mo.) 1901-192?, 1902-12-05
VOTING MACHINES SUCCESSFUL.
Voters Were Instructed How to OpAy'
ate Them Before Casting Ballots :

New York dispatch: One of the
unique features of the recent elections
in this city was the use of the voting
machines in five polling places in this
city. In all but one the result was sat
isfactory. Voters were instructed if
they did not know how to operate the
machine. Two small duplicates of the
machine were used in demonstration,
one for the Republicans, the other for
the Democrats.
The voters was instructed to swing a
lever at the top from left to right,
which unlocked the machine and also
drew a pair of curtains together, hiding
him from observation. His next duty
vas to turn a handle attached to one
of the party emblems, which were in a
vertical line on the left side Of the
machine. This brought down the whole
line of small levers to the right of the
emblem, n lever for each candidate
for Office.
If the voter wished to scratch any Of
these candidates he would push up the
lever which had been brought down
over the candidates name, and he
could, if he wished, push down a lever
in any of the other lines corresponding
" Nv tlC IlNhClp, tllClCDJ NOlllE lux
the candidate for that Office. The lever
first used was then swung back to it's
original position, thereby recording the
vote, locking the machine again and
opening the curtains.
Mayor Low, who was one of the early
voters, took only a few seconds, though
it was remarked that even that was
time enough to split or scratch, if one
was familiar with the machine. He
was the sixty seventh voter, and after
chatting for a few moments he entered.
He was In the booth but ten seconds.
There was a sharp and decided click,
the bell rang, and Mr.. Low stepped into
view again. He had voted without in
structions, because he had inspected
the machine thoroughly a short time
previous to election day, and was well
informed as to its operation.
The first vote to be cast on the ma
chine in this district was that of AS
semblyman cambridge Colby, formerly
of st. Louis.
Everything worked smoothly in maxi
ing up the returns of the machine, until
the vote for senator was reached.
There were six straight ballots on the
Greater New York Democracy cast and
in the first statement, which was made
to the police, that many votes were
credited to Frederick l.. G. Heating in
addition to the II he received in the
Tammany column.
Senator Nathaniel E. Elsberg receiv-
ed 157 votes.
When the election officers came to
make up their papers in detail, how
ever, 1t was discovered that in the space
for the senator in the Greater New
York Democracy there appeared the
words. mo nomination" On the poll
clerks sheets there was a space fol-
lowing the names of candidates marked,
mo nominations" but there was no
such mark on the papers which the in
spectors were to fill in.
There was a wrangle over the mat
ter which delayed business for nearly
half an hour. A Democratic watcher
insisted that the Greater New York
Democracy had Endorsed Heating. and
declared that for every straight ballot
cast for the rooster emblem one vote
must be counted for Heating.
1t was finally decided that the poll
clerks should put the figures 6 opposite
the space for mo nominations" and
the inspector wrote in a similar entry,
adding the words Greater New York
Democracy" and leaving the settlement
of the question to higher authority.
The representative of the voting ma
chine company was present. He re-
ported criticisms Of the machine and
said the six votes were cast for just
what the New York Democracy put up,
namely, "No nomination."
The voting machine is in use in sew
eral upstate cities. including Rochester
ana Syracuse, and the returns of cleo
lions in these places have been record
ed within a few minutes of the time Of
the closing of the polls on election day.
The use of the machine, 1t is said.
does away with the voiding OF vallots,
and loose votes In the present system,
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