New Britain herald., 1914-04-18
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| - giving some atten- tion to the returns l k-- from the fifth and
 1-~- sixth wards from last Tuesdays contest. l The democratic vote there has been
 on the decrease since 1910 and it
 has now dwndled in local elections, | at least. so as to cause democratic
 leaders to think it over and look for
 the cause. When MT. Halloran ran l against O. F. Curtis four years ago
 he boiled 2,S07 votes as against 2,- l 2O5 for MT. Curtis and of this total | Mr. Halloran received SS3 in the ] sixth ward as against 18s for his op- 1 ponent and in the fifth ward his vote
 was 59O as against 1S2 for MT. Cur 1 tis. In 1912 MT. Halloran's vote in the fifth ward dropped to 569 and that | of Colonel Thompson, the republican l nominee for mayor, went up to 191, l while in the sixth ward the formers | vote was but 763 and that of the col l oneFs went to 231. The total vote ] for Mayor Halloran that year was l 2,516 and that of Colonel Thomp- l son 2,441 This week produced the greatest surprise of all, for while the | total vote cast had been increasing all | the time it went to 6,S78 this time ] without counting the vote that had been cast for other mayoralty can- didates and the vote for MT. Halloran l in the fifth ward came down to 413 l and that of MT. Quigley went up to 1 39S and in the sixth ward the latter 1 boiled 535 votes to 726 for MT. Hal loran. Here is a situation that calls for some sort of an explanation, for
 although the vote had been increas- ing the democratic pluralities had been decreasing. Mayor Halloran ran we'll in the other wards, the total ] figures showing that he ran 19l ahead of the registrar, which is fair basis for comparison, in the city. Had he won by that many votes it would have been more in accordance with the general expectation on the
 eve of election. The great run made
 by MT. Quigley cannot be accounted for in republican votes alone. He
 ran over two hundred behind his ticket, but there were republicans
 who undoubtedly cut him and who
 did not vote for any one for mayor
 so that he must have received the
 votes of socialists as we'll as of dem
 ocrats. The tendency in the north
 ern wards has evidently been towards
 republicanism, although Senator Lan- ders made good showing in the fifth in the last state and national election. The votes in the northern wards this week are as much of 8 surprise to the republicans as to the democrats The latter were allowed thousand majority in the fifth and sixth wards in the republican pre- election estimate So that the count almost took their breath away.
 There hasn't been much talk of the
 defect in the machine in the fourth ward at the last election for the rea- son, perhaps, that it did not fail to ] work until the polls were closed and an effort was made to open it up for the count. It was found necessary, however, to obtain the services of | an expert in order to open the ma- chine. The question has been asked what the result would have been if the machine failed to operate during the day. If it did another machine would be pressed into use, an extra one having been provided in each ward. The objection raised to the use of machines in Hartford be- cause of the lefect in the recording of the vote there for mayor in the
 
 l raised any objection in New Britain, but there would probably have been a
 kick had the fourth ward machine
 caused any inconvenience in this city. l New Britain now owns twelve ma-
 chimes and they are all paid for, the
 last two having been purchased about i three or four years ago, the city pay l ing cash for them, so that there is no l likelihood of their being discarded, not at least for some time to come.
 They have never caused any trouble
 here but the same cannot be said of
 the old ballot. There have been sev- l eral recounts in the wards and the exact count has been
 just that many times de- 1 layed. In one instance an effort was
 made to have the legislature order all
 the boxes opened but it refused to do
 so. That was when O. F. Curtis was
 beaten by T. H. Brady for represen- 1 tative by a few votes. The vote how 1 ever, was recounted at the end of six l months when the boxes were opened
 for the purpose of destroying the bal lots, but while the count was not
 exactly the same as that made
 originally the error increased the ma- 1 jority of MT. Brady to a small extent. 1 It was IHe constant uelay Tn the count ] that caused New Britain to abandon l the ballot for the machine and there
 has never been any reason to regret l it. The vote and the winners are
 known within about half an hour of
 the time when the polls close. The 1 expenses incident to election are less with the machines than with the bal l lot, besides there are no peddlers and there is more order around the polls This Is something to rejoice over An l other argument in their favor is that they provide absolute secrecy for the