The San Francisco call., 1905-06-21
EXPERT MAKES REPORT
ON VOTING MACHINES
oAKLANp, al. June 20th. ,05


On last Monday the Supervisors of
Alameda County opened the bids of the
United States Standard Voting Machine
Co. and the Dean Ballot Machine Co for
supplying the County of Alameda with
one hundred voting machines The
Standard bid was $4,000. delivered in
Oakland. and the bid of the Dean Ma
chine Co. was Se50.00, delivered in Oak
land.
The Supervisors ordered at that time
that an exhibition Of the two machines
should be made for five days in the
Union Savings Bank Building, corner of
Thirteenth and Broadway The ma
chimes were exhibited as per request Of
the Board OF Supervisors
To-day the matter came up again and
was put over for two weeks; a resolu-
tion was, however, introduced, relieving
the machines from any further exhibit
tion, and Supervisor Kelly introduced q
report from Mr.. James Spiers, Manager
of the Fulton Iron Works, who had
been employed by him TO make an ex-
pert examination of the two machines
and report TO Mr.. Kelly. Following is
Mr.. Spiers' report:
SAN FRANCISCO. Cal. June Is. 1905
w. c. Ralston, Esq,
President Fulton Iron Works
San Francisco, Cal
Dear Sir:
l beg to acknowledge recent of your
letter Of the 18th inst, inclosing a let
ter from Mr. Kelly, requesting me to
examine into the mechanical movements
OF the Dean Ballot Machine and the u.
submit the following:
The essential part of any voting ma
chine is the registering mechanism. and
! have given this part the most atten-
tion.
In the Dean Machine / find tha Inn
wheel is at all times locked and con-
trOlleo by the 10th wheel and fhis is
locked and controlled by the unit wheel
and the unit wheel locked ond con-
trolled by the actuator. The actuator is
locked and controlled by the main oper-.
ating arm, which manipulates the cur
tain lever, and at all times during the
process OF voting, and when the ma
chine is idle / find the unit counter
locked, allowing no possibility for the
counter 70 be moved by any external
force, such as Jarring of the machine
on unbalanced parts. I also find that
should the voters get access to the
counting wheels, they could not alter
the count by the use of any instru-
AS TO the general design of the ma
chine, l find IL very compact and all
parts accessible and free from any me-
chanlcal defects. The parts are so de-
signed as to strength that in nv onin-
ion the machine will stand an unusual
amount of abuse, and can be handled or
transported without danger of derange-
close TO the ground. making IL stable
and less liable to accident when setting
up. The interlocking system and
grouping mechanism / have examined
and round the same care of design ap-
piled.
In the L. S. Standard Machine I find
totally different arrangement of
parts, the registering mechanism as a
body moves.
The particular slide or actuator oper-
ating the unit wheel when operated
upon by vote remains stationary, the
non-voting actuator being held in place
by friction only, making it possible that
II the actuator was loose through wear
there would be possibility of its NOV.
ing Dy the momentum of the frame to
such position allowing the unit wheel
TO be absolutely unlocked and free to
revolve. II, when in this position. the
unit wheel We're unbalanced and Loose
on shaft, tho same would revolve and
snow false register. There is a fur
ther possibility that If the momentum
was severe enough to cause the actua-
tor to be thrown it's entire distance a
false register would take place On the
register that is being operated on hv
the voting key there is one position OF
the aetuator which leaves the unit
wheel unlocked, and if this wheel was
loose and unbalanced and the move
ment Of the whole mechanism slow.
raise register would take place.
The machine is well designed. with
good workmanship. The glass hack
necessary to protect the counters from
manipulation is liable to breakage in
transportation, and should any particles
of this glass get into the soft metal
counters, IL might derange the machine
The center Of gravity of this machine Is
high, necessitated by an understructure
to bring the working face to the proper
level
The Dean Machine, having an abso-
lutely positive counting mechanism be-
Ing less liable to damage in shipping.
handling and erection, equal in design
material durability and Workmanship
70 the Z. S. Standard, leaves no ouestton
in my mind but that IL is superior TO
the u S. Standard. I am, yours respect
fully JAMES SPIERS.
Manager Fulton Iron Works