The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-01-14
Primary Election Law.

~ Inc last regular. session of the gen
eral assembly enacted law proyid.
ing that all nominations for state.
congressional, legislative and county
onces, except for judges of the various
courts, shall be made by vote of the
people at primary election, to be
held in the month of June Of the year
In which general election is to be
held. Under the provisions of this
law, nominations for Offices to be fill
ed at the last general election were
made. The working of the law was
perhaps as satisfactory as could have
been expected, but some weaknesses
were apparent which in my judgment
should be considered by you at the
present session. Before passing any
criticism upon the statute, | want to
assure you that / am in full sympathy
with the principle. of the primary, and
am OF the opinion that no radical de-
parture from the general plan of the
law should be made at this time, but
the weak places should be strengthen
ed and the law should be given fair
test
There is one thing, however, that
causes me to fear that the statute m 9y
not meet with final approval-that is,
the apparent inability of the voter to
acquaint himself with the candidates,
especially for the minor state offices
and those below the head of the ticket.
There seems to be prevalent belief
that the candidate whose name heads
the list thereby secures an advantage
over his opponent. This has led many
individuals to believe that the alpha
bette arrangement of names should be
abandoned, and that names should be
rotated upon the ballot. I haze hest
tated to suggest an amendment touch
ing this point. because such a oro-
vision must necessarily presume upon
either the Indifference of our people
or their inability to acquaint them
selves with candidates, either of
which reflects mildly, at least, upon
the intelligence of the voter.
But there seems to be some grounds
whose name appears first among the
list of candidates does secure some
advantage over others. If this be true
and reasonable means can be found
whereby to obviate the difficulty, 1t
should be done, as all candidates
should so far as is possible stand upon
absolute equal footing.
There is another amendment which
the experience of executive council in
passing upon claims, in my judgment
demonstrates beyond question should
be adopted-that is, the elimination
of that provision which requires the
state to paw one-half of the expense
of holding the primary election. Each
county should meet the expense of its
own primary, the same as it does the
expense of the general election. BY
such means, better economy will be
observed and less friction in the pay
ment of claims will follow. The pres
ent plan is practically equivalent to
the states collecting the money nee
essary to meet its portion of the ex-
penses from the counties and then
turning it back to them. In addition
to this needless requirement, which
of itself adds to the expense of the
primary, there cannot but be con-
fict of opinion, if not of authority, be-
tween the various boards of supervis-
ors and the executive council as to
the amount that should be paid for
various items of expenses incurred by
the counties. Perhaps the most fire.
quent sources of disagreement are as
to the amount that should be allowed
for printing the ballots and publishing