New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-01-15
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGES.

The meeting Of the State Electoral
Colleges on Monday has naturally
raised anew the question of slmphtylns
the machinery through which the Pres
idcnt and Vice-President are chosen.
Governor Baldwin has suggested III
message to the Connecticut Legislature
that the people of the various states
oucht 10 be allowed To vote directly Tor
the candidates on national ticket.
That method would AT least cure de-
feet i'm the present system unpleaSahlly
illustrated in the last Presidential cam
paign. II was only with great difficulty
that the right of Republican voters %
vote for electors willing 10 ratify the
action of the Republican National con-
ycution was secured i'm the states or
PENNSYLVANIA. Kansas. Nebraska. West
Virginia and Oregon. II was not So
cured AT all in California and South
Dakota. while in Oklahoma those VINO
supported the Republican electoral
ticket did not know how many of the
electors would. if successful. vote for
Mr.. Taft and how many would vote for
Colonel Roosevelt II may be true that
state election laws were responsible III
large par, for the complications which
arose after the Chicago convention.
But - long aS Presidential electors
and candidates for elector retain their
present legal status Of Independence
such cmbarraSS mentS cannot be wholly
forestaIled. If certain Of them choose
10 DEFY the instructions OF the national
organization which they are supposed
10 represent. no legal means exist 10
prevent them from committing dis
graceful breach Of trust.
Were Presidential and NiccPrc~iden-
rial candidates voted Tor directly. scan
dalS like the virtual Acknowledgement
Of the Republicans of California last
| November would be far less feasible.
| Moreover. a direct vote would allow a
ma ioIi'y or plurality in state 10
! give that states entire vote 10 lis choice
/ for President and VicesPrcsideut. Tn
der the system Of voting for electors
/ trick ballot laws may cause some of
the electors on party ticket 10 run
| behind and be defeated. thereby diyid-
| ing states electoral vote. II has
| happened twice i'm Maryland that tn"
| head of the Republican ticket has re-
| ceiyed more votes than any other can
l didate for eleCtor. while most Of his
/ colleagues have been defeated. ON a
| direct vote Roosevelt would have had
| the support Of Marylands eight electors
| i'm 1904 instead Of getting the support
of only one. In 1905 Taft would have
had eight votes instead Of two. In Cal
; ifuruia this year the personal popular
} iiy or unpopuIarity of certain Candi-
/ dates for electOr operated 10 split the
/ Electoral College. Roosevelt receiving
| eleven votes and Wilson two Such &C
/ cidental reyersalS or notifications Of
the verdict Of state are undesirable,
and In a very close election they might
work manifest injustice.
IT, however. electoral middlemen are
| TO be abolished, some provision VIII
have TO he made by federal law for the
substltutlons on national ticket in
/ case Of death or withdrawal Nice-Presi-
/ dent Sherman died on October 80 last
/ year. when it was too late 10 put an
other name on the ballot. Republican
electors I'm Vermont and Utah have just
| voted for Nicholas Murray Butler In
! Mr. Sherman'S stead. Were the di-
| rect vote Of the state alone TO count, 4
party might be left just before or Just
after the election with n vacancy on its
ticket Few people perhaps would oh
Jet to seeing the machinery of choice
Simplifcd and modernized. If il is,
| there are several dangerous gaps in
the Presidential succession law which
I might also he repaired.