The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-09-03

Use of voting machines in Wayne
by the county commissioners during
the past four years, according to E.
NJ Haas In 1909 Postmaster Haas, as
SECRETARY of the Commercial club,
drafted a series of strong resolutions
for presentation to the board of cOun-
ty commissioners, calling upon them
to- introduce the use of machines in
this county.
"At that time" said Mr. Haas, this
morning, "the board of commissioners
were not unanimous in favoring the
purchase of voting machines for two
reasons. The first was because salts
factory terms of payment could not be
arranged. The main reason was that
some members of the board felt that
the machines were still in the expert
mental state and that it would be ad-
visable to wait a few years before
making the investment.
Machine Brought Here.
"The board of directors of the Com
mercial club, after passing the orig
inal resolutions, had little to do with
the question two years later when the
matter was again brought up. In 1909,
however, machine, the name of
which I forget, was placed in the Of
fees of the Commercial club for the
use of citizens who might wish to call
and try it out.
1.-TWO years ago when the purchase
of voting machines was again being
considered by the county commission
ers, no action was taken by the Conf
mercial club, which merely stood pat
on the resolutions that it had fathered
two years before. At this time, how
ever, was no longer secretary of the
Commercial cluD,a l was. however, ap-
pointed caairma.,J2f special commit
tee to have charge of the matter, as
far as the organization was concerned
Before the adoption of the resolu-
ton. the special committee of which
l was a member, made a trip to indian
apolis and conversed with a number
of county officers and other well
known citizens regarding the success
of the machines in Marion county, and
received information that warranted
us to advocate their introduction here.
Haas Favors Machines.
PERSONALLY | am very much in IA
vor of the purchase of the machines,
Tt will enable us to handle the differ
ent voting places on a 600 vote basis
instead of the $50 vote basis, made
necessary under the Australian ballot
system, which will probably decrease
the number of voting places in the
county, with their attendant expenses,
from ga to 2S.
Il understand that the different COM
panies will allow the. county to make
up the purchase price out of the
money that is annually saved by the
introduction of the machines. Addi-
tional revenue to be applied to the
purchase price, can, | think, be OBJ
tanned by the rental of the machines
to the city for its use in municipal
elections.
81 don't know much about the cost
of the different machines, of which I
think there are six in the market, but
/ understand tnat the price of the ma
chine sold by Mr.. Davis (the Empire)
is $3.50"
The report of Mr.. Haas committee
to the Commercial club directors, Mon
day night, follows:
Committees Report.
Your committee specially appoint
ed to consider the advisability of the
purchase of voting machines desire to
report that further information has
been accumulated by the secretary
relative to the matter from numerous
county officers where voting machines
are now in use, and which informa-
tion is wholly favorable to the use OF
machines, we therefore see no reason
for this club to change its views as
expressed in resolutions adopted Au-
gust 2, 1909.
"The matter of the purchase of vot-
ing machines has been considered by
the board of county commissioners to-
(Continued on Page Two.)