Bridgeton pioneer., 1905-11-30
Something About Reeoun,.

o"so AoA ohoAiA ob iasI elec6lOn day in
Camden. There is to be recount 80
all the shrievalty votes cast in Mo-
mouth. There is talk of a reeonnt :.
the Assembly vote in Ocean. There !.
to be recount in Passaic. reconn.
is now in progress in New York c;tr
In fact, whenever and wherever a con
test has been close. not only in this
State, but in all others, tie defeatod
candidate almost invariably demands
recount, on the ground that the ballots
cast were not counted and returned az
they should have been.
There is hardly any variation 70
this program, and there is abundant
justification for it. Down in Mon
mouth county, where there are f;ftr
eight election districts, the countv
election board found something moro
than dozen of the returns correc+
All the rest were imperfect and ipcor
rect in some way or other. Possihlv
only one or two votes were incorrectl,
returned in each district, but in tho
aggregate this may be enough to turn
the election from Francis to CIose
and the court is asked to recount the
whole number of ballots cast in tho
county to determine this very point,
But look at New York city. Was
there ever a more convincing aren.
ment against the existing election
officer system and the method of tally.
ing, counting and returning the eleo.
tion figures? In one district 279 hal.
lots were cast, but the returns showed
339; in another only 319 were cast. INIT
the returns gave 332. In some dis.
tricts no tally sheets had been kent at
all. In one district twenty five Hearst
votes were not reported. Some off.
cials returned the tally sheets, not
taking the trouble to count. There is
we'll defined public sentiment. in
New Jersey as we'll as in New York
that Hearst received more votes than
Mcclellan, yet the official returns do
not show this to be true and thew are
everywhere doubted.
There isn't the slightest question
that Leon Albeit was once counted in
mot voted in as Governor of this
State; for some of those who did the
ballotbox stufing and the counting
were convicted and sent to State
Prison. There is a very strong sus.
picion that the 500 votes needed to
elect George @. Ludlow when Fred A.
Potts as his Republican opponent in
1880 were counted for him in Hudson.
though never cast there or anywhere
else. In point of fact nobody has any
confidence in the election officers or,
their returns in close vote; nothing
but recount by the judges of the Su.
preme Court is at all satisfactory.
Only when the majorities are so over
whelming that mistakes can hardy
affect the results are ordinary election
returns accepted as substantially cor.
rect.
One of two things seems imperative.
Either select only skilled mathemati.
clans and expert accountants for elec.
tion officers. or have voting machines
that cannot and will not falsify the
returns, and put them in the hands of
competent, honest men, who will start
them right II one New Jersey dis.
trict machine refused to work for
two hours. In a whole division in
Philadelphia. according to The Press
Of that city, "a human machine re-
fused to allow single vote to be cast
for ten hours on election day" In
Red Bank one candidate, who had no
opposition, had more votes credited to
him than were cast, but this was
caused by lack of knowledge of the
way to gear the machine. In New
York, as already shown, more votes
were returned than we're cast in
dozen different districts and this was
done criminally. The Red Bank
machine announced the error at once;
it took a recount to find the mistakes
purposelya made in New York.
The voting machine is and has for
several years been in use in Buffalo,
Rochester,, Syracuse, Utica and in
several other large cities in New York
state; it is also used at elections in
towns, townships and village district
and the longer it is used the better it
is liked. 1t is honest, it is accurate;
there ares no recounts where it is
geared right to begin with, for the
| voters know that it's verdict is not to
be impreached. 1t may be tampered
with by ignorant or inscriptions off,
GERS, but even then it cannot be made
to lie. It will tell, the moment it IS
! opened il the voters intentions have
been in any way vitiated.
a~o7