The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-02-03

Preferential Plan Works Success
full in First Election of Col
orado Town.


Apropos the recent adoption of a
unique commission form of govern
ment In Grand Junction, Col. LaFol-
lette's Magazine discusses the prefer
entail system OF voting and Its mer-
its. This system, which was tried in
Grand Junction November I'd last, is
described by Karl A. Bickel in a spe-
cial article in the weekly.
The preferential system operates as
a primary and an election at the same
time. Nominations are made by petit
ton. and the names Of the candidates
are arranged In alphabetical order on
the ballot. which In nonpartisan- Mr..
Bickei explains the way in which the
voter casts his ballot and the method
Of determining the winning candidate
in these words:
The voter takes the ballot from the
judge and rettres to the booth. Let us
state. for illustration. that he has five
candidates to choose from for cer-
tain office. For his first choice. which
this man better qualified for the office
than any other. he marks the usual
cross after the name of John Doe In
the first choice -Jasaes Foe,
however. 10 q good man and honest.
He picks Foe for second choice and
marks a cross after Foes name In
the second choice column. There re-
main Louis Hoe, Dick Joe and Rich
the candidate OF the interests Be-
hind him a. gathered all the power
and wealth OF the organisation The
good citizen does not want to vote
for Richard Roe. He knows. however,
that Hoe and Joe are good men and
while he is not enthused over their
candidacy. he would much rather see
them elected than Roe. SO he places
cross In the third choice column
after both the names of Hoe and Joe.
Remember. voter can vote but one
choice for first choice. one choice for
second choice. but In the third choice
column he can vote for as many as
he will save one.
Method In Unique.
Under the Grand Junction charter
the candidate to win, UP to the count
majority Of the vote cast for all OF
the candidates. II no candidate has
majority in the first choice. the
candidate having the least number of
first choice votes Is dropped out OF
the count. To the first choice votes of
each candidate remaining Is then add
ed all of their second choices. IL no
candidate then has majority OF the
each candidate are added on the vote
and q majority vote then wins.
In thes Grand Junction election the
issue was between those who favored
opposed 1t. There were SIX candi-
dates for commissioner of public al
fairs, which Is equivalent to mayor,
four of whom had worked for the
charter and two of whom had opposed
1t. The two were suspected OF az
fiiiations with the saloons and public
utility corporations. As the results
showed in the ordinary election de-
termlned by q single choice one or
the suspected candidates would have
wor. as he had the most first choice
votes. the opposition having united on
him. But IN this election. although
the reform element Was split UP
among four candidates, the count on
second and third choices gave one OF
their candidates the majority, and
hence the office.
Commentaed by LsFeiiette.
OF this preferential system LaFol-
lette says editorially:
This Is what men have been striv-
ing after ever since popular govern
ment was eoncetved--matority rule.
We haven't 1t now. Too often the
loosely organized majority is ruled by
a highly organized minority. Various
plans have been brought forward to
overcome this The second choice form
of preferential voting Is one. Second
elections Is another AS long as forty
years ago John Stuart MIL suggested
preferential voting. but did not work
out his suggestion into specific plan.
Thinkers In this country have turned
their eyes to Australia where prefer
entail voting Is In operation But In
this Grand Junction plan we have
what appears to be the most prae-
teal plan that has yet been put into
..if this system had been in opera
ton in Boston the other day the re-
sut@of shs-eiectian- would doubtless
have been far different. If # had
primary in Wisconsin another man
would have won the lection"