Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-09-05
Essential Features of Amend
ment to Law Decided on by
Committee
TAKE OATH WHEN CHALLENGED
Voters Not Required to Swear Party
Allegiance Unless FeaIty is Cues
tioned-separate Ballot to Be Re-
quired-Features of the Weeks and
Arney Measures Introduced.
pecial to mes-Republican.

| Special to Times Republican.
| Des Moines, Sept. 5.--The principa
features of the amendment to the pri.
mary law to be submitted to the leg
islature and as agreed on in commit.
tee. are:
Voters to obtain primary ballot OF
their party by signing written request
supplied by election Of officials.
|. Only voters who are challenged to
be required to swear to their party
affiliation.
Primary ballot to be separate from
official ballot.
Amendment only to provide for fill
ing vacancy caused by death or with
drawal Of senatorial candidate and not
to provide new manner of selecting
candidate for senator"
The subcommittee Of lawyers to
which was assigned the task Of franz
ing a measure is now engaged in draft
ing the bill, which will be introduced
in both houses at the same time. An
agreement has been reached on all i'm
portant points, and all that remains to
be done is to finish drafting the bill.
Monday being holiday, there will be
no session of the assembly, and the
members of the committee expect to
have their bill ready for Introduction
when the two houses convene Tuesday
morning.
Dolliver Plan Rejected.
All previously proposed plans have
been rejected by the subcommittee as
either unconstitutional or not feasible.
The committee was unanimous In de-
Gliding that the names of the sena-
torial candidates could not DE printed
on the official ballot They also held
that it would be unconstitutional to
require a voter to vote for all or
part Of the regular ticket of party in
order to participate in its senatorial
primary.
The, sentiment of the committee is
distinctly against requiring the voters
to swear away their party affiliatlon.
Finally the plan of requiring the voter
to sign q printed request for the pri-
mary ticket of the party to which they
belong, was adopted. Only when a
voter is challenged will he be required
to take oath that he is a member of the
party, for whose primary ballot he has
applied.
1t is expected that this plan will meet
with strong opposition, due to the de-
mands of some of the members for.
stricter party test. But the committee
believes it's recommendation to be the
most practicable scheme yet suggested
and is prepared to support 1t on the
floor. The amendment to be suggested
by the committee will only provide for
filling vacancies caused by the death
or withdrawal of a senatorial candl-
date
Representative Weeks bill providing
for the nomination of caRdidates for
senator at the general elections. In
stead of at the June primaries. did not
flnd favor among the members OF the
committee They are agreed that 1T
would be better to- keep the primaries
and general elections separated except
when necessary to fill vacancy.
The bill introduced yesterday by
Representative Arney contains some
OF the features Of the Dolliver- Smith
plan, which the committee believes to
be unconstitutional. For that reason
it was not given serious consideration.
Weeks Idea New One.
The Weeks bill is departure from
( all other plans suggested so far. 1t pro-
yides that the nominations for United
States senator shall be made at the
general elections In November of the
years; preceding the expiration of the
terms of either or both senator's In
stead of printing the names of the SEN
atorial candidates on the official bal
lots, the Weeks bill provides for sep
arate senatorial ballots for each party
When the Judges hand out a regular
ballot they are required to also give
out a senatorial ballot If there are any
of the party to which the voter is
shown to belong by the alphabetical
list made up from the regular primary
election Of the preceding June.
Ifethe voters name does not appear
on the list and he desires to cast a vote
for senator he will be required to de-
clare his party affiliation and to state
his intention Of voting for a majority
of the candidates on the ticket of the
party for which he has declared. With
out such declaration of allegiance he
s>,.S, KILL f1lf