Norwich bulletin., 1912-04-30

 an entirely equal footing "The party 1 column,n he said, "faeilitates careless ness in voting and encourages the nomination of inferior candidates for minor offices who rely for their success upon the strength of other candidates { upon the same ticket. It is whele- | some that the voter should be re- quired to express his preference for each office, and it is desirable that each party should be stimulated to aa i ditional care in it's nominations, par ticularly fer minor offices, because h | candidates are to be submitted to this test.' Especially do the censidera 1 tions emphasized by Governor Hughes apply to municipal elections where administrative rather than political questions are in issue.
 There have been a number of more or less plausible objections raised to the Massachusetts ballot which, how ever, a twenty years experience with the ballot in Massachusetts has proven to be illusery and of no weight.
 The principal one is that the voter gets tired of making a large number of crosses and the vote accordingly falls off toward the end of the ballot and the candidates whose names begin with an early letter in the alphabet have an unfair advantage. The Massa- chusetts election returns wholly dis prove this, and show that on the con- trary wherever there is a real contest between candidates and the voters are interested the vote is heavy no matter what place the candidate occupies, whether at the top, in the middle, or at the foot of the ballot, and that it makes no difference whether his name begins with A or 2. Local can q lot in Trrba ;e | ed sometimes receive more votes than the governor.
 | Some people fear the Massachusetts ballot will break up parties. Twenty three years of it in Massachusetts l have not broken up parties there. Nearly every considerable town in ] Massachusetts, after trying it in state elections, has adopted it for town cleo tions, in spite of the fact that in town | elections they can adopt any system | they please.
 l Connecticut does not suffer as much as many states from the long ballot 1 It does not attempt to elect as many l different officers as many other states, | although elections in Connecticut would 1 be improved by the application of the short ballot'' idea to the office Of jus tice of the peace and some other offices which are purely administrative and do 1 not involve partisan politics. The Con necticut ballot should be greatly i'm 1 proved in small particulars, like print ing the titles of the offices in different l type from that of the candidates names; also in making clearer wheth- CT the individual voting spaces go with the name on the right or the left of the spaces The fundamental vice | in Connecticut Is that it puts a large premium upon straight voting, mak- ing 1t very difficult to vote a split tick ct as compared with a straight ticket.
 In this respect the Connecticut bal lot is in the worst class. With Kan sas, Louisiana, and Indiana and some others it puts the greatest premium upon minimizing voting.
 Opposed to Machines.
 As to voting machines, as this is to be a special topic at a later meeting, shall refer but incidentally to this subject An application of the princi- ples referred to above, however, con- demns the voting machine when ar ranged with a party handle. The Vot- ing machine when so arranged puts an even greater premium upon straight voting than the party column type of papre ballot.
 This is recognized by voters, politi- clans, newspapers and even the courts In a recent case the court of appeals in New York made such a statement.
 The figures of the Lilley election in Connecticut Gan election in which there was an unusually large amount of split voting) indicated that in the Connecticut cities where voting ma chimes were used there was much less splitting than elsewhere in the state.
 New Jersey, which used the voting machine for many years, has abandon ed their use, in spite Of the large amount of money invested in them
 This abandonment was the result of 7 vote of the people on the question
 Since then, as already noted, New Jer-
 sey has adopted the Massachusetts
 ballot
 On the conclusion of his talk, MT Bard answered & number of questions for members of the board. In answer
 ing a question of the efficiency of tht voting machine. MT. Bard stated tha
 a machine made upon @ plan similar ito our present ballot would be no more
 effective. 1t would be unWise for Con : necticut to change for something which will not be an improvement. Aft CT a general discussion of condition:
 in Connecticut, Mir. Bard was given { ; vote of thanks by the board.
 4, $. Hamilton, representing thu manufacturers of the Standard an( Empire voting machines. of James town, N. Y, was introduced and spok'
 briefly on the merits or the voting ma chine, and emphasized the statemen that with machines the buying ant selling of votes would be impossible
 He read extracts from newspapers o several cities in which the machine are in use, and where there are evi dently afYored.
 On the conclusion Of the meeting
 sandwiches, doughnuts and coffee wer 9 served, under the direction of A.
 Spalding, chairman of the executiY
 committee.