The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-09-06
SOME TASK TO COUNT
BALLOT This ELECTION
From Saturdays Daily.

Election boards at the differen
precincts are looking into long hours
of labor which will follow the com
ing primary election if a batch o.
tally sheets received at the office o.
County Auditor Edgar Weaver yes
terday can be taken as criterion
There is all sorts of speculation as
to how soon after the closing of the
polls the successful candidates vii
be known. 1t is certain that as g
result of the new law hours and
probably days will be required In
picking the parties, choice in the
different contests. 1t will undoubt
eddy be well into the day following
the primary election before any OF
the returns are available and the
politicians and others interested in
the maze of figures will wear out
pencils and tablets of scratch paper
in reaching unofficial and partial
conclusions through the operation OF
the new law. And because of the
unfamiliarity with the law, there is
reason to believe the process will be
extremely slow and bulky, as com.
pared with the old procedure.
Much More Complex.
Under the old law, with the num-
Der of tickets now in the field, there
would have been at each of the forty
precincts in WinOna county twelve
tally sheets, two for each ticket. Un-
der the new law, there will be twelve
tally books, with twenty-eight sheets
over which the boards at the pre-
cincts will be compelled to labor.
There will be two books each for the
democratic, republican, prohibition,
public-ownership and non-partisan
tickets. Each sheet will be large and
provide for each of the candidates
first and second choice votes. The
names will appear on the talley
sheet as they appear on the ballots
At the present time the auditor and
his assistants here are working over
this large assortment of blank sheets
in an endeavor to work out some
plan whereby they can be marked
with the names of the individual can
didates. This plan will greatly aid
the election boards, for if they were
compelled to fill them in it would
mean hours of additional work and
there would be the danger of fire.
quent errors. The idea of the au-
ditor is to aid in facilitating and ex-
pediting the counting
School of instruction.
In tally sheets alone, each pre-
cinct will receive approximately
seven pounds of election matter. Be-
sides this there will be the ballots
and other paraphernalia required in
doing the work required of the
boards. The ballots are now being
prepared by the auditor under the
provisions of the new law.
1t is evident that school of in
structiOn for the judges at the polls
would be greatly beneficial Until
those who must count the votes are
familiar with the process of the new
law, the work will proceed unusually
slow. The first and second choice
votes must be counted on the tally
sheets for each candidate and when
complete returned to the auditors
office ready for the perusal CT the
CanvaSsing board, whose duties will
also be greatly increased 1t will be
up to this board to say officially
who are the nominees and, in this
work, it is predicted several puzZling
and ticklish issues will arise.
1t is the second choice phase of
the new law that causes the coming
primary election to be bulky. The
law applies to both county and other
offices