The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1909-01-21
SIMPLIFY THE BALLOT.

at the head of the ticket or by leav,
ing the circle unmarked and placing
a cross In the square in front of the
name of each candidate of the party.
A mixed ticket could be voted by
placing a cross in the circle at the
head of any party ticket and then plac-
ing cross in the square in Jront of
the name of any candidate for whom
il was desired to vote on any other
voted by emitting to mark the circle
and placing a cross in the square in
front of the name of every candidate
for whom it was desired TO vote. The
newness Of the, plan and the different
methods of marking resulted in the
making of many mistakes and led to
a considerable demand for the, removal
of the circle. ! must confess that
the suggestion appealed very strongly
to me as it did, also, to many others.
The matter was taken up by the extra
session Of the ,Twenty-sixth general
assembly and the law was so modi-
fed that, the circle was to be used for
straight voting only. In my iudg,
ment this last method was reason
able and should have remained the
law. However, the demand for the
removal of the circle continued until
the Thirty-frst general assembly re.
moved it.
We have now voted two or more
times under each of the three meth,
DDS above referred to and by com
parison should be able to judge az
to which is the better and more sat
isfactory. | have looked with some
care as to the results under each of
the plans and am thoroughly con
WINGED that the present method does
not afford sufficient ease with when
to vote a straight party ticket, and
by reason of this fact a loss of votes
occurs to all candidates below the
/ head of the ticket. a., This was not
true under either of the former meth
DDS, or if true the loss was very much
less. AS proof of the correctness OF
this statement let me call your atten
marking of the ballots was according
to the original plan provided for un
der the Australian system, the com
bined vote of the republican and dem
ocratic parties for president was 416,
162, and for secretary of state, IT, was
AGA or a difference Of only fifteen
votes. In 1896 under the same meth
cd of marking, the vote for president
was 513,034, while the secretary oil
state was 513,5z7 or 493 more votes
for secretary of state than for presi
dent. 1900, under the second method
provided, but while the circle was
still upon the ballot, the combined vote
of the two parties for president was
516,964, while for secretary of state
it was 515,454, or only 1910 more
votes for president than for secretary
of state, Again, in 1904, under the
same method, the combined vote for
president was 457,04S, and for secre
tafyit 6f ostat4bft was 455, 280. or only
1853 difference. But in 1906, a'Ihe
first election held after the circle
was removed from the ballot, the
combined vote of the two parties 1or
governor was 49, 61, while for sec
rotary of state it was only 392,U1, or
loss OF '21 900 votes, being loss OF
more than one; vote in every twenty
cast for governor, and were the com
parison made on some other office
than that of secretary of state, the
difference would be still greater Like
wise in the recent election, there were
475,9S1 votes cast for president, and
only 44S,056 for secretary of state,
or 27,925 more votes cast for presi-
dent than for secretary of state, be,
ing a loss of about one vote in every
seventeen cast for president. This
loss OF votes is, in my judgment, di.
rectly due to the removal of the cir
Gle from the ballot The figures do
not indicate that there would he any
particular advantage 10 either party
should the circle be restored, but 4
believe that an easier and quicker
method should be provided for the
man who wants to vote straight
ticket than that he should be com
PEELED to mark each one OF the forty
or fifty candidates, as he>ls required
to do under the present pan. The
law now recognizes the use of the
voting machine and the machine pro
yides an easy method for straight
voting.
Why, therefore, should not the
voter who uses a ballot instead OF a
machine have the same privilege? 1t
viii doubtless be true for all time
that some people will think that so
long as the nance of candidates for
president and yice-president OF tine
United States are printed upon the
ballot. the voter should in some way
indicate his preference of candidates
for these positions. ! am reliably in
formed tina. many hundreds. possibly.
thousands. OF ballots were thrown out.
not counted. that We're cast az the
recent election because fh yoter had