Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-10-22
MACHINES ARRIVE
THIRD AND NINTH PRECINCTS
WILL VOTE BY MACHINERY IN
COMING ELECTION.

Two OF the seven Universal voting
machines recently purchased by the
CITY council of Ottumwa have arrived
IN the city and will be used on cleo
tlon day in the third and ninth pre-
clncts. On next Monday the machines
VIII be placed In the corridor OF the
court house and an expert will be in
charge from that time until election
day to give every voter in the two pre-.
clncts an opportunity to study the ma
chimes and learn how to vote.
X. ID. Bemis and his son G. H. Bemis
representatives of the Universal Vot-
ing Machine Co., are in the city and
will be present at the voting places on
election day and will have charge of
the machines between now and cleo.
ton day. Mr.. Bemis is especially de-
sirous that every voter in the two
precincts will come to the voting
places and become thoroughly posted
on the use of the machines.
To Use Official Ballot.
The actual official ticket which will
be voted on the day of election is ex-
pected to arrive in the city today from
Des Moines. Copies of the official bal
lots will be printed at once and the
machines will be equipped with them
IN order that the voters may have the
advantage of studying the use of the
machines with the exact ticket which
will be voted November 8. 1t is
hoped that this ticket can be ready for
use by Monday next when the ma.
chimes are placed at the voting place.
Extremely Simple.
Voters will find the use of the ma
chimes extremely simple. The voting
OF a straight ticket will consume but
four or five seconds. The scratching
of the ticket can be done more quickly
and with far more accuracy than with
the old style ballot and with abso.
lutely no liability of losing the ballot
by mistakes in marking.
Press Key and Pull Lever.
The pressing of key and the pull.
ing OF lever votes straight ticket.
The pressing of a key, the pulling of a
lever and the sliding forward or back
of one or more indication bars will
scratch the ticket just as often as the
will OF the voter dictates. The max.
ing of single scratch on the ticket
can hardly occupy more than two or
three seconds and further changes will
occupy the same time for each
There is nothing complicated in the
act of voting and any voter who knows
his own mind when he goes into the
booth can certainly cast his ballot
with absolute accuracy in ten or fif-
teen seconds.
To Make Record.
Mr. Bemis will personally have
charge of the machine in the third
ward and it is his desire to make a
record in the matter of rapid balloting.
1t is partially for this reason that he
desires all voters to come to the
court house and get thoroughly ac-
quainted with the use of the machines
before election day.
Mr.. Bemis declares that within fit.
teen minutes after the entire voting is
ended the result of the ballot will be
known. When it is remembered that
in the first ward especially the result
of the ballot is only learned after
many hours of hard laborious work
some time between 4 and o'clock on
the following morning the great adj.
vantage of the machines in the matter
of counting the ballots will be realized
Next City Election.
The remainder of the seven ma.
chimes will be received in the city in
time for use at the coming city cleo.
ton next spring which will be the first
time that the city as whole will vote
by machinery.