The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-04
0VERTHR0ViING THE SlFE6UARDS
 THAT KEEP ELECTIONS PUR.
F r IS UNFORTUNATE that Mayor Wi

bonding measures saw fit to overlook the re- qliirements of the statute. under which the bonds were submitted, and that he caused the election to be conducted in a manner at de- Hance with the laws governing electors meet ings in this state.
 His neglect to follow the law has probably resulted in an entirely illegal daternlinat ion of. the uiIestion, and it is not improbable that an other ballot will have to be taken in thelaa amer prescribed by law.
 t is at least true that tire manner in which the election was conducted was such as to cast grave doubt upon the validity of the result SO that the sale of the securities may be prevented he bonds are submitted under Chapter f5f, pnI5lik Aets. Of dg43 an Act Giving Powers 10 Cities and Boroughs.
 This act did not leave the ballot upon bond ing measures to the discretion or lndiscretion of anybody who might chance to have some thing to do with the election. It provided how the election should talk place. The regulation of this matter is in Section of the act, which reads as follows
 The election in any city or borough to which any resolution is to be submitted for ap- proyaI, pursuant to the provisions Of this act shall be warned and held in the MANNER PRO- VIDED FOR THE ELECTION or OFFICERS therein. The effect of this paragraph is to put a bonding election in any town where it is held under the protection of the secret ballot laws and to safeguard the voting and the result as carefully as any election is ssafeguarded
 What is the manner provided for voting for officers in the city of Bridgeport How are such elections held?
 The manner of eIecting officers in Bridge port fs by secret ballot, in which voting ma chimes arc used, under the protection Of law, and the hest rules 10 obtain pure ballot that the ingenuity of generation of Connecticut statesmen have been able to device
 BuE though the failure to vote on voting machines. may be sufficient in itself to cast; grave doubt upon the validity of the election, because the bonds were not voted upon in the manner provided in Bridgeport for the elec- ton of officers, this omission would not carry the moral and political objections that actually inhere in the election it actually was con dlicted
 Ballots might have been used, and used as the law provides, in such cases.
 secret ballot, conducted according to Connecticut law, and protected by Connecticut statutes, might not be strictly the method Of voting demanded by the bonding act, but it would not be open to other than technical ob- iection-
 To understand what extent the ordinary precautions in conducting electors meetings were overthrown it will be necessary to con tain a pure and secret ballot when officers are chosen by use of paper ballots. Such ballots must be official.
 They must not go into the hands of any unauthorized persons.
 It is<an. offense to mark ballot, or to as sist voter in casting ballot, unless he asks for the assistance and requires it.
 It is an pffense for a voter having entered the voting place to leave it with the ballot in his possession.
 The envelope in which the vote is cast must ne mark ed with the initials of the ballot tenders
 Jealous of the secrecy of the ballot,s the law having provided that the ballot itself should pass from the possession of the proper officials into the possession of the voter, as he is about to cast it, and into other hands also provides with great care the conditions under which the vote shall be cast.
 The leading idea in these provisions is se- crecv It is required that there shall be rooms fo which the elector may retire to mark his vote It is made a crime for anybody to ob- serve him. or to enter the booth with him, or to try to do so, except where by infirmity he re- 4uires assistancs.
 The enclosure in which ballots are mark ed must contain only one person at time. The voter must be provided with way out of the voting place, so that he cannot pass or conn municate with any voter coming in.
 These are only few Of the wise and nec- essary precautions for the protection of the bal lot box
 IN THE ELECTION OF SATURDAY IN NEARLY EVERY VOTING PLACE, PERHAPS IN ALL OF THEM, ALL OF THESE RULES WE'RE NEGLECTED. OR DITIED