Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-09-14
NEW PRIMARY LAW WORKS
WELL

Hawaii s first nominating election under the
new direct primary law has brought number
Of lessons and suggestions for needed amend
inents to the law.
On the whole, the new method of nominating
party candidates worked just as successfully as
its supporters had hoped. 1t provided free
and untrammeled expression of opinion on the
part of voters as to the men they wished to see
run for Office It's main drawback-that OF fail
ing to keep voters Of one party from partlcl-
pating in the nominations of candidates of an
other party-can hardly be overcome except by
some rigid plan that would make an elector de-
clare his party allegiance and receive a ballot
containing the names only of candidates run
ming under that single party designation Such
a plan would have two manifest disadvantages
lit would prevent the large growing element
of independent voters from casting their bal
lots according to their Judgment, and it would
increase the election machinery to the point OF
unwieldness Handling three or four big bian-
ket ballots would be no easy or quick task Tor
election officials.
One noticeable fact of Saturday s voting was
that il proceeded rapidly and smoothly. The
much-feared difficulty in voting the new ballot
proved nothing but myth. In most precincts
the voting was the fastest in many elections
ANY voter of ordinary intelligence, it was
shown. can cast the new form of ballot without
any particular difficulty or delay This is am
ply proved BIZ the comparative statistics OF bal
lots cast and ballots thrown out the percentage
Of the latter being so small as to benearly negll
gible.
The election machinery under the new law
is shown to be good One or two minor amend
ments are necessary. For one thing, great
deal of absolutely useless labor was caused cleo
fion officials at the polling booths by the sec
ton of the act of 1913 which requires full re
turns to be made not only to the secretary OF thu
territory. the county clerk and the chairman o.
the election commission, but to the terrltorla
and country cllairmen of each political party
The precinct officials, after counting most O
Saturday night and in many cases most OF Sun
dav morning, then were compelled to make ou
13 distinct sets Of rules, 10 Of which arr
quite superfuous.
Another amendment suggested by some, bu
one whose wisdom will have to be considered, i
that the names of candidates receiving less thar
certain small percentage Of votes in tn
primary eshould be automatically dropped, !
being probable that their names would onl!
cumber the general election ballot with no pos
sibilitv whatever of election.
In general, it may be said Of the new Law
that it makes too long a primary campaign
That may be obviated by lessening the iengt
Of time before the primary election requires
for candidates to file their nomination papers
If candidates for delegate file month befor
the nominating election and those for legisla
tive and municipal offices file two weeks befor
the election, it will shorten the stumping can
naign and should not hurt any candidate
chances. As it is now, the primary campaign
besides being burden of expense upon IN
candidate, is tiresome to most OF the voters
Both party organizations were drawn into tn
primary campaign this year. The longer tn
primary maneuvering, the greater is the ea
pense, the greater the possibility of factlons
4 fights in the parties, the greater the exhaustio
long in advance Of the real campaign. Hall 9
the candidate strength and most of the cleo
torate' IS patience are spent before party noml
nees are chosen.
But these are minor details that are easy
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