Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-04
4 FLAW IN THE LAW.

one OF the very Few points OF I'm"
perfection in the Nebraska primary
election law has to do with its opera
ton in Douglas county alone. Under
the law the county canvassing board Is
called to meet on the Friday following
the election in September to canvass
the vote and the nominees are called
to meet Of Saturday following the cleo
ton for the purpose of electlng a
county committee. In Douglas county
1t is physically impossible to comply
with the law. The c~anvassing board
will meet on Friday, but 1t can hardly
properly canvass the vote and make
proper returns of the election inside
of five days. This means that it will
be practically the second Thursday fol-
lowing the day of voting before the
result in Douglas county can be Off
cially made known. A very slight
change in the verbiage of this section
will remedy the condition.
Another point that may receive some
attention is that the law at present
prevents the nominees for the legisla-
ture from taking any part in the nam
ing of the county committee Or select
ing the delegates to the state conven-
ton. In Douglas county this year the
duty of naming the county committee
will devolve on the candidate for
county attorney, the candidate for
coroner to fill vacancy and two candi-
dates for county commissioner. 1t
was scarcely intended that the candi-
dates for the Legislature were to be de-
prived of having any voice in the Sc
lection of county committeeman, but
the law at present denies them that
lating to this matter at present reads;
Section 81. The first Saturday after the
primary election the nominees for county
officers shall meet at the county seat of
the respective counties in this state, and
by a majority vote thereof select one COM
mitteeman from each township or precinct
In said county and within one week there
after said committeeman so selected shall
meet and elect a chairman of the county
central committee of his respective party,
and at said time shall elect one delegate
who shall meet with like delegates chosen
in the same way from each county in the
state at the capitol at L. o'clock noon on
the fourth Tuesday in September, 1907, and
annually thereafter on the fourth Tuesday
Of September, and said delegates shall
forthwith formulate the state platform OF
their party and select a state central COM
mittee composed OF one member for each
senator elected from each senatorial dis.
trict, and said committee so elected shall
select it's chairman and secretary. The
platform Of each party shall be framed al
such time and shall be made public not
later than 6 O'Clock in the afternoon on the
following day.
The trainers of the law did not take
into consideration the difficulties thai
would arise from the presence of an
unusual number of names on the bal
lot, further complicated by the rotation
required in Douglas county, and sew.
eral other incidentals that have com.
bined to make the work of casting the
vote and counting the ballot somewhat
tedious. The spirit of the law car
easily be complied with by the meetinI
of the nominees for county officers OF
the first Saturday following the an
nouncement of their selection by tn,
c~anvassing board, and the committe,
then chosen can select its state dele
gate without danger of seriously in
~volving the, legality of the proceeding