The San Francisco call., 1906-10-31
VOTING MACHINES
To BE TESTED.

The suspicion that the voting ma
chimes were fixed just before the
last municipal election has reached the
stage of an absolute certainty in the
minds of several prominent politicians
who had an opportunity to examine
the machines after the votes; were
counted last November. In order that
there shall be no possibility of like
suspicious or accusations arising, the
men interested in obtaining true ac-
counting of the votes have decided to
bring an expert from the Office of the
voting machine company to examine
machines at random just before cleo
ton day.
The managers of the Fusion cam
paign of 1905 in every way attempted
to insure an honest election and to pre-
vent any tampering with the machines
Guards were placed about them by the
Fusion committee and by the Mer-
chants Association while they lay In
the City Hall under the care of Reg
istrar George Adams. Notwithstanding
these precautions, many machines were
left in QUITO the-way places, and the
limited time before the election pre-
vented a complete examination.
r. L. Radke, of Radke & Co., who
served on the Grand Jury of which
Edward HI. Mitchell was foreman and
which was in power during last cleo
tion time, is certain that the machines
can be tampered with IN such way
as to escape the observation Of all but
an expert. While any one may set the
counters In the machine at zero, only
an expert can tell whether the lever
indicating certain candidate will pull
the rod in the machine. registering a
vote for that candidate. To be sure
that every rod is rightly connected
would involve taking apart the machine
and testing each rod.
INSPECT MACHINES.
Before the last election Edward H.
Mitchell, r. L. Radke, A. G. Mcfarland
and another member of the Grand Jury
went from voting booth to voting booth
in an auto, working night and day, in
specting the machines. When the in
spection was over they still felt some
apprehension regarding the correctness
of the machines, but were Teassured by
the representatives of the manufactur-
i1r company. As result of this dis
trust the Grand Jury's committee re-
fused to sign a letter recommending
the machines as completely satisfac-
tory.
In the meantime rumors were COM
ing before the Grand Jury that the
machines could be fixed" Professor
Corey of the University of California
said that this could be demonstrated.
Gavin McNab was reported to have
received an offer from an unknown
man to FIX the machines for $4,000.
and different schemes by which the ma
chimes could be prevented registering
votes for candidates were exposed.
A demonstration of the facility with
which the machine could be fixed. to
register the votes of one candidate on
anothers tally was held before Fairfax
N. Wheelan and other Fusion poiti-
Clans An employs of the voting ma
chine company showed that the ma
chimes could be tampered with.
INSPECTION A FARCE.
The only way in which "a majority of
the machines at last election were test
ed was by simply throwing the lever.
No examination was made of the rods
or counters, owing to the lack of time
between the arrival of the machines
and their use on election day. When
sent out to the election booths many
of the machines were left in back rooms
of groceries and stores and were ac-
cessible to the friends of the admins
tration.