Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1910-02-11
Another Primary Bill.

A primary election BILL following in a
general way the features Of the Straus
bill, is being prepared by Senator Blair
Lee, of this county
The text Of the Straus bill will be fol-
lowed as nearly as practicable, says Senator
Lee, land especially with respect to its
application to Baltimore city" While Mr..
Lee favors some of the features Of the
Straus bill, he thinks it may be modified
with benefit, and will incorporate his ideas
in the new measure. Speaking Of it, he
said -t
Since adjournment on Friday have
had for the first time an opportunity to
examine the primary election bill intro
duced by Mr. Carr in the House of Dele
gates and known as the Straus measure
1t possesses many elements to be COM
mended. 1t places the control of party
affairs with the masses of the respective
parties. and its enactment would secure
the management of parties from the peo-
pie upward, instead of from the managers
downward condition Of first importance
to be brought about if we are to have in
fact, as well as in name, a popular form
of government.
in my opinion, if law can be passed
which will guarantee such a condition, the
principle or object now sought by many
citizens will have been accomplished In
fortunately, however, Mr.. Straus has com
plicated this great question with the mat
ter of increased representation in State
conventions for Baltimore city. which is
already before the Legislature as a con-
stitutional amendment. | come from a
county where the Crawford county system
of voting has been in force for many
years, and know that the Australian bal
lot feature Of the Straus bill as applied to
primaries would disfranchise many white
people in the primary The proposed
Stratus ballot would virtually be giving us
the Wilson law ballot to vote in the pri-
mary elections throughout the State, and
probably would disfranchise many white
voters in Baltimore city as well as the
counties.
1T is true that similar ballot to that
proposed in the Straus bill has been in
vogue in Baltimore city primaries for some
time, but it is interesting to note in this
connection that Of $4,000 affiliated Demo-
cratic voters in Baltimore city, only about
1000 of them had their votes counted in
the last Baltimore city primary while in
Montgomery county, with the present en-
velope system of voting the Democratic
vote in the primaries was nearly equal to
the vote cast in the general election for
the Democratic ticket. as well as for the
franchise amendment.
Until some better ballot system is sue-
eeste6 than the envelope or Australian
ballot it seems that as between these two
systems of voting in the primaries the en-
velope system is better adapted to the
counties, and ! see no reason why it
should not work as well in Baltimore.
with the feature of the Straus bill Civ
ing direct voting in State, congressional
and judicial conventions eliminated, it
would be necessary to devise some plan
to provide for a convention system which
will be relieved, as far as possible. from
the objections to such a system. This
might be done by accepting the provis-
ions of the Straus bill for the election of
delegates to the conventions by popular
primaries, with a provision that the ballots
contain the names of State, congressional
and judicial candidates, and that each
voter, instead Of voting exclusively for the
candidate, should be permitted to indicate
his preference among the candidates in
the order in which he prefers them. as
first, second and third choice"