The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-18
SENATE BALKED ON PLAN
 TO NUMBER ALL BALLOTS

sons appointed managers from playing sick and allowing an unscruplous person to take his place in the box.
 The section met with opposition from Senator Craig of Dallas and Rogers of Sumter on the grounds that 1t made a man really unable to serve in q box amenable to an expensive prosecution, without having a discretionary ofieer to rule on his case before the matter was | taken into the courts.
 The section was adopted Il ayes. 10 ] nays.
 The Senate then recessed until s:so o'clock The Afternoon Session. The Senate reconvened at 3:30 o'clock with twenty-three members present and | Lieutenant Governor Cunningham signed I number of biis on their being read at ! length before the Senate.
 | After the disposal of this business, the general election bill was again taken up. The nrst amendment offered was a new section by Senator Spragins, which pro- vides for the numbering of ballots. Senator Thomas in speaking to the amendment said that nothing is more dear to man except his love for home and those near him, than the sanctity of his ballot.
 Mir Thomas then spoke eloquently on the importance and weight of the ballot 'If the ballot has this weight" said Mir. Thomas, you should throw your every influence toward sustaining the purity of d vote"
 He thought the amendment of Senator ] Spragins protection to the purity of the ballot. The numbering of ballots would bring to light any unfair voting. Opponents of the amendment, said Mir. | Thomas, would claim that the secrecy of the ballot is thereby destroyed. -.
 Let it be destroyed" declared the Senator from Barbour if corruption can thereby be destroyed" .
 During the campaign for the ratification of the new constitution MT. Thomas said, speakers promised the people that, after the adoption of the organic law, the bal lot would be unqualiiedly pure.
 And now" said MT. Thomas, some of these speakers are on the floor of the Senate attempting to keep from the statutes of Alabama a law prohibiting any chance of fraud"
 Senator Thomas called the attention of the Senate to the fact that from 1s1s to 1879 Alabama had numbered ballots and in all of those years elections were fair.
 Craig Spoke Against It.
 Senator Craig, Chairman of the Com
 mittee on Privileges and Elections, wal
 recognized to speak against the amend
 ment The people from his part of the State
 MT. Craig said, did not wish to rob any
 one of his ballot. and they don't neet
 numbered ballot to keep them from it
 He disagreed with the Senator from Bar
 bour that the legislative history of Ala
 bama indicated that the ballots should b,
 secret. He believed that the freedom O
 the ballot should apply to the poor a, well as to the rich. He believed that tn,
 employe should be allowed to vote as h. pleased, without the employer knowinl r how he voted. He cited sections of the various Stat Constitutions to show that the legislativ construction of the term ballot is , t secret vote. Senator Craig read an In l diana opinion showing that in that Stat
 the word ballot carried with 1t tn 1 qualifying term secret"
 g He also cited a Minnesota case identi . cal with the Indiana case. He had foun
 that a number of similar cases. but il v his research he had not discovered a sin n gle case to show that the ballot coul
 be numbered unless the Constitution dis d t;nctly provided for such numbering. e Senator Craig said that the most facil . way of cheating in an election is tn
 swapping of ballots. The numbering doe
 not prohibit this and in fact furnlshe O uOcumentary eVluence tndt the lnspecto - | has acted honestly.
 CT Senator Harrison of Lee said that, Ill, . the Senator from Dallas. he believed ths ., the Spragins amendment was one of tn " most important measures that has com o before the Senate. But unlike the Sena = = tor from Dallas. he believed the amend ment was constitutional and was calcu L. lated to purify the ballot. ..-4 U U A quarter of century ago the Senate from Lee had heard a speaker from tn T county of Dallas pleading with the whit u men of Alabama to strike out the pro '- vision for numbering the ballots. HI '' reason was that under that system tn e white men of Dallas were unable to out l. count the negroes without laying then a selves open to prosecution by the Feders r. courts Senator Bullock of Franklin, said the d although the Indiana decision provide B. that the word ballot" carried with 1t tn B. meaning Secret" the historical conte, Is leading up to these decisions are not i 1t the least similar to that of Alabama
 He then entered into a lengthy leg; le argument in defense of the amendment
 The Senate adjourned at 6 o'clock wit
 the amendment pending. to meet tn r. morning at 10:30 o'clock.