Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1911-05-12
Primary Law, Says Senator Lee,
Gives Power To Voters.

wide primary law under which all State
officers will be nominated this year. favor'
the SENTINEL with the following article in
defense of the law and answers some Of
the criticisms which have been made
against it, Senator Lee believes that the
law will work successfully In discussing
it, he says:
The object of the primary election law
is to give to the voters within political
parties the power to control and manage
party affairs. including the nomination Of
candidates. The power can thus move
from the people upward rather than from
not attacked by such system, but it must
be responsive and faithful to the general
interest. The same safeguards are placed
around the voting and the counting in these
party elections that were formerly provided
only for the general elections.
In any important constructive legislation
the bill sought to be enacted must be
adapted so as to avoid immovable obstacles
which are found to exist. By avoiding
such obstacles the legislation is made al
direct and effective as the nature Of the
opportunity permits. but, on the other hand
if the measure is allowed actually to run
against any such obstacle, wreck occurs
and progressive ideas are lost or painfully
retarded. Many good people have pro.
gressive ideas they cannot put into practi-
cal operation.
This law having stood the strain of a
heated city primary contest and being, more
over, as to the counties, based upon pre-
vious experience, especially in Montgomery
county. should appeal to the sympathy Of
benevolent and hopeful dispositions.
In view of this apparently favorable be-
ginning the critics Of the law may posi-
bly, be largely from either the impractical
good people or the practical bad people. and
possibly some of the critics are just tired
cussing, old sailors in from stormy voyage
where the heavy sea that distressed them
was really the force that brought them
safely ashore.
State officers have heretofore in this State
been nominated by delegates chosen, ac-
cording to long party usage, upon the basis
Of legislative district and county units.
To have insisted upon a change by law
of this basis in order to yield to the de-
mand of Baltimore City for increased rep
resentation in party management would
have caused the defeat of any primary
election law, as evidenced by the action Of
that legislation upon the proposed consti-
tutional amendment providing for repre-
sentation in the legislature according to
population. For this controlling reason
the question of the basis of representation
was left where it always had been, namely,
in the hands Of the governing bodies of
the respective political parties.
However desirable ii might have been
to provide uniform primary ballot for use
throughout the State, an unavoidable OBJ
stacle was presented by the insistence of
the Baltimore City delegation on retaining
the complicated ballot used in the city in
primary elections, which, if extended, would
in effect have applied a Wilson law form
of ballot to the party primaries throughout
the State. 1t was as impossible to secure
the adoption Of such a ballot for the whole
State by the legislature as it was to pass
corresponding or equivalent constitutional
amendment for an educational qualifica-
ton without grandfather's clause attach
ed. The only practical solution of this
difficulty was to concede to the city the
complicated form Of ballot it demanded
and to make an honest provision to meet
the county requirements. The envelope
system Of voting has been misunderstood
and misrepresented. II is true, as stated,
that the voters are furnished with official
ballots in advance of the primaries and
each may mark or have marked for him
any number of them, any or all of which
he can take into the polling place. On
offering to vote he is handed an official en-
velope and also blank ballot of his party,
with which he must retire into the booth
and there place any official ballot he pleases,
whether marked before or then marked, in
the official envelope and seal the envelope,
all Of which is required to be done in the
secrecy of the booth. The secrecy of the
ballot is as well secured under the envelope
system as in any form of voting.
On the face Of the law. as 1t now stands,
appears the record Of another serious OBJ
stacle.
Certain counties objected to the nomina-
ton of their local candidates and represen-
tatives In the legislature by direct vote.
This had to be met by continuing the con-
vention system for these Offices in five
specified counties, namely, Howard. Wash
ineton. Worcester, Somerset and Wicomico,
but the local convention is subject to being
discontinued by referendum vote in each
of these counties this summer
The published statements Of the law as
TO these excepted counties have been uni
formly incorrect. The provisions of the
law apply to these counties in every re-
ofNNe ooNS viz vi lOCdl
officers and members Of the legislature.
The delegates from these counties TO
State conventions and also the man
aging bodies are elected there under the
general provisions of the law, with pref
erential voting and popular instructions
as elsewhere in the State. and even the
members Of the county conventions which
nominate those local candidates are selected
at the same time by direct popular vote
difficulty as to absolute uniformity in
the present operation of the law was en-
countered in another feature. The regis
tration books in the counties differed
from those of the city in that the party
affiliations Of the voters had never been
registered in the counties The burden
and expense Of new registration had to
be avoided. This difficulty was overcome
by permitting the voters to give their aftili-
atoms orally at the time Of receiving their
II =