The Oskaloosa herald., 1908-12-17
FORMAL VOTE OF FEBRUARY
ACTUAL ELECTION OF PREsl-
DENT OCCURS THEN.
Ritual For the Election As Exact As
That of Any Secret Society
Great Care Taken.


Great Care Taken.
Washington letter to the Boston
Herald: The presidential election held
in November is not presidential cleo.
ton at all III the strict meaning OF
the constitution The real presidential
election will be held in the hall of the
house of representatives at Washing
ton Oh the afternoon of the second
Wednesday of next February 1t will
be very formal and strict affair,
interspersed with occasional cheering
from the. galleries 1t is such a cut
and dried affair, and is pulled off,
with such precision and punctilous.
ness quadriennially that one can tell
beforehand what is going to happen.
For instance, it is entirely safe to
say that on the second Wednesday af
ternoon of next February, at 1850
O'Clock, the senate will take a recess
and grave procession will form and
march along the main corridor of the
.capitol 1t will be headed by Vice
nett and Sergeant-at-Arms Ransdell.
There VIII be an entry in the Con
|gressional Record Of the next morning
as to how they preceded and pro
|ceeded" to the house, and also an en-
try to this effect: s.r
The senate returned to its cham
Der at / o'clock and 80 minutes D.. M
and the vice president resumed the
chair"
For in recent years it has takeI
Just ffty-five minutes to hold the real
presidential election. Perhaps the eX.
istence of an additional state, Okla
noma, whose vote must be counted mG
proclaimed, will take an extra min
ute or two. In any event, the senate
in joint session with the house, and
presided over by the senate's' presiding
officer took fifty-five minutes to elect
William Mckinley president and Gar
ret A. Hobart vice president; also fiji.
tty-tive minutes to elect Roosevelt an6
Fairbanks.
Ritual For the Election.
The ritual for the election is quite
as exact as that of any meeting of /
secret society. First there are chosen
in advance two tellers, one for each
party, in the senate and in the house
There is no little pride among senators
and members in being designated 70:
this honor. Four years ago Senators
Julius Caesar Burrows, of Michigan
and Joseph Weldon Bailey, of Texas
land Representatives Joseph H. Gains
of West Virginia, and Gordon Russell
of Texas, took seats at the long table
in front of the speakers desk to serve
as tellers OF the vote, which was
marked upon specially prepared broad
sheets of stiff paper ''''-
Great care is exercised about mark
ing up the various states correctly
and in their alphabetical order, be,
cause the announcement of the vote
alone would suffice to elect the presi
dent and vice president. When the
senate returns to its chamber its tel
lars take care to report the result
which Is entered in the senate journal
and also printed in the Record "The
state OF the vote for president" and
the state of the vote for vice pres
dent" will be noted by totals and also
in a separate table.
II Majority is Lacking
At these presidential elections that
congress holds, the choice must be by
majority over all. There is no danger
of its being otherwise next February
But when there are more than two
candidates having votes in the cleo,
toral college and no one has major
ity-sOmething that has not happened
since the election OF John Quincy
Adams-it will take more than fifty,
five minutes to elect president and a
vice president. For the very first
thing after the big count, the house
would proceed to elect president, vot.
ing for him by states, each state hav.
ing but one vote, and a majority of the
states being necessary to elect. But
they would have to choose from the
three candidates who were highest on
the electoral list. ...-l.
Then the senate would hold an cleo.
ton all by itself for vice president.
two-thirds of the whole number being
required to hold such an election,
which must carry by a majority of all
the senate.
Carefully as the requirements for a
presidential election have been framed,
a number of interesting constitutional
points are raised and discussed every
four years, and probably will be raised
again this winter. The most serious
of these questions is:
What would happen in case of the
death of either the president-elect or
the vice president.elect between the
second Wednesday OF February and
March following"
AS far as known, no constitutional
lawyer has ever answered that ques.
tion satisfactorily.
Christmas Globe.