The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1914-12-01

nical will be undertaken under the Re-
publican direction and that they will
probably get Democratic help in the
making.
Two things which have caused
much dissatisfaction in their opera
tion as part of the present law, and
which are likely to receive consider
ably more than passing consideration,
are the lateness with which election
returns are now made on election day
night, and the fact that without par
ticipation in the direct vote primaries
for candidates for various offices any
one who cares to file a petition after
the primaries can become nominee
for Office and have his name printed
on the official ballots, thereby destroy
ing the very object for which the pref
erential primaries were instituted.
In the former matter it is pointed
out that beside the lateness with
which returns are now received, they
are frequently inaccurate and open to
criticism in other ways. In extenua-
tion of these conditions it is declared
that before the election boards of the
various districts begin the work of
counting and tallying the vote after
the polls are closed at z o'clock in the
evening the men serving upon them
have already performed thirteen
hours of hard work and are practical
ly unfit to then take up the task-the
most important of the entire election
of counting the votes. 1t is urged
in this connection that, no matter
what the calibre of the men serving
on the election boards, their work
from o'clock in the morning until z
o'clock at night must necessarily he
so wearing upon them, both PHYSICAL
ly and mentally, that they can not be
considered fit for the greater task
which confronts them after the bal
loting has ceased.
Two remedies have been suggested
for the condition which these circum-
stances bring about. One is that an
earlier hour, for the closing of the
polls be fixed, at sundown, or five
o'clock, as is the case in other states,
or that the law be so amended as to
provide for a double set of election
officers, the fresh men to take the
places of those who have been look
ing after the depositing of the votes
in the ballot boxes all day., 1t is
held by those favoring such plan,
would be a better guarantee that the
ed than the present system of having
the tired election officers do the work.
Instances are given where the mem
bers of the election board have work
ed ali through election night until
noon of the next day before complet-
ing their task of counting and tabu-
lating the ballots.
in the matter of the primaries it is
pointed out by men active in the coun-
ellis of both the Republican and the
Democratic parties that the present
system is unfair to the candidates
who make a campaign and contest for
the places they would like to have on
the ticket of their party on election
day, and to the voters, who believe
that in the primaries they are making
their choice of candidates by selecting
the men who are to stand on election
day as the nominees of their party for
given Offices. AS it is now, candi-
date who is not satisfied with the
showing he made in the primaries or
who may not feel that he was fairly
beaten in that contest, can file petit
tion signed by given number of vot-
ers, in no case prohibitive and be-
come a nominee on equal footing with
the man who won his right TO the
place on the ticket in the primaries.
In addition to this. man need not
make the campaign and the run in the
primaries. He can simply sit back
and after the primaries become a no
minee by petition and enter the elec-
tion contest without having spent his
friendships, his money or his mental
or physical energies in the prelimin-
ary battle.