The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-05
LOST HIS VOTE
MACHINES DENOUNCED BY
F. W. KELSEY.
Tells Civics Club About Experience in
First District, Third Ward,
Orange.

IN attack against voting machines was
made last night at the meeting of the
Cfvics Club of the Oranges by Frederick
w. Kelsey. He claimed that the one
used at the last election in the first dis
trict of the Third Ward, Orange, failed
to work properly, but this has been denied
by City Clerk Gano and Charles Mutterer,
u demonstration of the device.
speaking of a personal experience, Mr.
Kelsey said he went TO vote on election
day shortly after 0 o'clock.
Il was deliberat in looking over the
list of candidates. he stated in the re-
port, and in making sure that L could
accurately use the machine to vote as L
wanted to vote. The election clerks were
patient ana courteous. No one had a
laiIer opportunity to test a voting machine
and record a desired vote, but 1 did not
vote as L Wanted to. l was debarred and
DISTINGUISHED as to Two candidates l want
ed TO vote for as ~effectually as though
l mad been forcibly prevented from enter
ing the polling booth. l pulled the party
lever, then raised the short lever or the
candidate in that row l wished to scratch,
lheh attempted to pull down the CORE
spending lever of the candidate in the
same column below l wished to vote for.
1t would. not work. l trieds again, care
fuly going over the levers already In
place and making sure there had been no
mistake. Again and again l went over
the mechanism and the names before me.
That lever was locked. / tried another.
also, Notwithstanding the corresponding
lever in the same column above in the
party row a been pushed up to release
the lever of the candidate in the indie
pendent Citizens party row wanted to
vote for.
Il called the attention of the election Of
ncers 10 the fact, and my feelings of IN
d~ignation and disgust in leaving that green
goods curtain can be better imagined
than described. Why were those levers in
that party row locked? Who is RESPONSE
BILE? Was it a trick or was it a defective
machine, and If defective how many more
voters here In Orange and throughout the
state were disfranchised in a like man
ner after having taken every reasonable
~precaution TO learn the pulls and levers of
that device?
The machine is a perfect piece Of
turers, political bosses and some of the
newspapers. Perfect, indeed, for confus-
ing the average voter, and for depriylns
many OF the right to vote other than the
straight party ticket
The machine in question was mechan-
ically imperfect or 1t had been tempered
authorized instructors 1t could not and
would not register a voters wishes at the
time | used it. One of the election Of
hcers, as ! called attention to the i'm
possibility of voting as | desired, nafvely
remarked that perhaps they had a grudge
against Alden Freeman but no one vouch-
safed any suggestion as to whether they
meant the d~isreputable Dickinson or some
of the other party bosses and officials re-
sponsible for nluictlng the State treasury
in forcing these costly and clumsy devices
upon the voters of New Jersey"
The club decided to recommend to Gov
ernor-elect Fort that the machines be more
generally used, the party lever abolished
and the names placed as on a Massachu-
setts ballot, when it was reported that MI.
Fort in his message will recommend that
all Of the machines be thrown out OF the
State.
The club will also write MIR. Fort and re-
quest him to recommend In his message all
extension of the school city and the APP
pointment Of Wilson L. Gin, who first
founded them. The plan Is working. salts
factorly in Orange, Elizabeth, Arlington
and other places.
Thomas s. Crane reported on the COM
mission plan as 1t exists in Galveston and
Houston, Tex. In the latter city there are
four commissioners and In a short time they
wiped out a floating Indebtedness of S4W,
600. Three new schools were erected at a
cost of $125, 600. six miles of streets paved,
$685. 600 expended for parks and $4,000 for
deepening u ship channel, all without a
bond issue. and the tax rate was reduced
from 81 to $3.50.
Resolutions were passed commenting the
Orange Common Council for deciding 10
Mrs. Frederick Shepherd for allowing the
club to meet at their studio for such a long
period. The charities building Is being used
onlyto secure a place In a civic centre.
All the other matters, were referred to the
| executive committee. The street number
ing system as proposed by Andrew j. Van
Ness, it was stated, had been adopted by
Orange. East and West Orange, and Will
probably be put In operation next year.