Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-11-14
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WISCONSIN PRIMARY LAW.
The following editorial is taken from
the st. Paul Dispatch and in as much,
as the primary election question is
now live one in this state it will be
we'll for legislators to digest this opin-
ion from one of the twin citys leading
dailies:
By an emphatic majority the voters
of Wisconsin ratified on Tuesday
primary law for which Mr.. LaFollette,
first as citizen, than as governor, has
fought for ten years. The coming ad-
vance in this state in the progress of
primary reform makes the Wisconsin
law of interest here. 1t has been pub
lished in the papers of that state pre-
ceding the election and we condense
from the publication statement of it's
features as they affect the voter. 1t
includes all state officers, United
States senators and Representatives in
Office, and all local officers, except
police justices and justices of the
peace. All judicial Offices are filled
there at the spring township elections.
There will be no party caucuses or
conventions held to nominate candi-
dates for the Offices included in the
act.
Sixty days before the primaries,
fixed to be held in September. the
secretary of state sends to all county,
city and town clerks notices designat-
ing the Offices for which candidates
are to be voted at the ensuing primary,
and these officials shall publish the
lists. A candidate before the primary
must obtain prescribed number Of
signers to a nomination paper, the
number being prpportioned to the
grade of the Office, the signers stating
it to be their purpose to support the
candidate for whom they sign. In the
booth the voter will be given the tick
cts Of all parties, and also of any indie
pendent candidates, separate tickets
being printed for each. Under the
provisions of the general ballot law he
will retire to thel stall and mark the
names of the candidates on one of the
tickets for whom he wishes to vote.
He will give to the receiving officer the
ballot which he has marked, to be
deposited in one box, and also the I'M
marked ballots which will be put into
another box This secures to the voter
privacy of party, while preventing him
from helping candidate of another
party unless at the cost of losing his
vote for all candidates of his own.
, The candidate for any Office receiving
the highest number of votes becomes
the candidate for that Office of his
party.
But if there are no conventions
there will be no platforms? And there
will be no committees to plan and
work the campaign? The law provides
primaries, the candidates for state
office shall meet at the state capitol
and formulate party platform and
appoint state committee. Doubtless,
candidates for city or county Office
can also meet and appoint their cam
paign committee. This law, which
sweeps into the waste basket all the
long-used practices of parties, which
extends to all except few offices, the
principle Of our present primary law,
went into effect on Tuesday last and
will go into operation in September
1906. @
It remains to be seen whether Min
81 nesota, which led of with an expert
mental and limited primary law, will
remain long in the background first
occupied. There will be stout opposi
ton to moving up alongside of Wiscon
sin BY those who opposed and still con
II denim the limited primary law. But
Y that act has fully INDICATED itself and
II justified those who fought for it
Nothing that has since happened If
the action Of any convention-every
thing that happened in the prelimin
81 aries to and in the latest state conven
ton OF the repub1i cans--but is the best
and strongest kind Of a reason fo1
adopting and making operative in the
next state election a law similar te