Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-09
WOMEN SEEK TO
VOTEUNDER NEW
CITY CHART Err
REVISION COMMISSION MAY
FAVOR PLAN
SENATOR BUcKLIN EXPLAINS
SYSTEM IN COLORADO
Preferential Scheme of Selecting the
NOMINEES Is in Effect Direct
Primary, Says
Expert

Woman's suffrage in purely munici-
the charter revision committee will
have to consider. Lewis r. Works, a
member of the commission, introduced
the matter last night, He said he had
been told that a woman's organization
intended to ask the commission to pro-
vide for a special city registration and
define a woman as an elector under
the same qualifications as a man, and
that at all elections not held under the
state law to permit women to vote.
DR.. John r. Haynes, q member of
the commission, expressed himself
strongly in favor of the proposition,
and in milder form Commissioners
Works and Wellborn favored it. Moth
ing definite was done in this connec-
tion, as the framing of the new char
ter still is in a nebulous state.
Before any definite action can be
taken the commission must first deter
mine if it can submit "a commission
form of government by charter
amendment or IL an entirely new char
ter will be necessary. To determine
this a special committee consisting of
Chairman j. A. Anderson, W. b..
Mathews and City Attorney Leslie r.
Hewitt was appointed last night. This
committee will make its report at the
meeting of the commission next Tues
day night.
BuckIin Explains
The preferential system of balloting,
as explained by Senator j. w. Bucklin
OF Colorado to the commission last
Thursday night, appears to have made
a decided impression on the members.
This subject was informally discussed
last night. The appealing feature is
that it is a practical direct primary
yet at the same time eliminates the
secondary election and consequent
heavy expense that grows heavier each
year.
The preferential system was first in
troduccd into the charter of Grand
Junction, Colo, but since then has
been adopted in the charters of Buff
falo, N. Y, and Cambridge, Mass.
This system allows the voter first,
second and third choices on his ballot,
but he cannot vote more than one
choice for any one candidate. He can
vote as many third choices as he
pIeases, less his first and second choice
and less one of the number OF candi-
dates. If Jones. Smith, Brown, Robin
son and Johnson are all candidates for
one office the voter can mark Jones as
MS nTSL CIoiSei ioiillll iS llo SetOilu
and put a third choice mark after
Brown and Robinson, but having vot-
ed for the other four candidates he
cannot vote for Johnson.
When the vote is counted the first
choices are first taken. If any candi-
date has a majority of all the votes
cast on the first choice count he is de-
Jared elected. If there is no election
on the first choice then the second
choice voters are added to the first, and
II a candidate then has a majority OF
all the votes cast he is declared elect
ed; If not, the third choices are added.
Best Man for Place
Senator Bucklin explained that this
method OF voting had the advantage of
selecting the best man for the place
in this way. If Jones. Smith and Rob-
inson are running for an office Jones
may be an extreme radical and meet
the views of one class of voters, while
Robinson may be extremely conserva-
tive and meet the views of another.
Smith is likely to be the happy me-
dium. A voter will cast his first
choice for Jones and u second one for
Smith, while another voter viii give
his first choice to Robinson and his
second to Smith. Thus Smith gets two
votes to one each for the extreme radi-
cal and the extreme conservative, and
the happy medium is elected to the Of
flee. lie is the real choice of the two
voters, as they can get together on
him, while they never could reach a
compromise on either of the other two
candidates.