The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1916-03-28
School Meeting.


s township of Northampton was held il
: the court house, Tuesday evening, ane
was one Of the most spirited gatherings
7 that has been witnessed for long time
1t was supposed there would be no oppo
) sition to the members of the Board Of
Education whose terms expire the last
of this month, but new ticket made its
appearance Monday morning and on
Tuesday another ticket came into the
: field. This naturally aroused interest
and the people came out. There were
295 votes polled for members, and a few
} less on the appropriations, the latter
seeming to be a secondary matter
The meeting was called to order by
District Clerk Mason and Richard ]. b.
Slack was chosen chairman, Mr.. Mason
acting as secretary. The latter read his
annual report, which, as in past years,
was an exhaustive review of the work Of
the Board OF Education for the last year.
! At the conclusion Of this paper voting
began. The polls were opened at FIVE
minutes before eight o'clock and were
kept open for an hour. George w. A.
French and William H. Stillwell were
the tellers at the box for members, and
Willard F. Lippincott and Joseph C.
Kingdom took charge of the box for ap-
propriations. The result was as follows /:
For members of the Board of Education:
total vote, 293, rejected, 2; Henry G.
Shirrn 1R0. tod rd
157; Christian ]. Krayer, 125 DR.. C. E.
Lord, 1874; Richard B. Eckman, 1926
John D. Hoffman, 1913; Ezekias W.
Esham, 81. Mrs. Stoddard, Shinn and
Krayer were declared elected.
In the box for appropriations there
were PIP votes cast. Current expenses,
POP for, five against; repairing school
house, 204 for, four against; manual
training, 157 for, 81 against. One voter
cast his ballot for 81, 900 each for repairs
and current expenses and another put
in for ticket circular notice he had
received from the Junior Order of Amer
lean Mechanics.
In connection with this meeting there
was considerable comment On the man.
ner in which il was conducted, the criti-
cism being mainly to the effect that the
methods employed are out Of date and
that there is much room for improve
nent. One of the gentlemen who was
noticing how things went has written a |
communication to THE NEWS, in which |
there are ideas ard suggestions which |
we have condensed and put in this ar
ticle.
The writer suggests that the polls
should be opened earlier in the day, say
at four or five o'clock. and remain open |
untl nine. That would give the voters |
chance to scan their tickets, and would |
also give some who did not get the OPP
portunity to attend the meeting in the
evening, time to go to the polls at their
leisure. 1t would also do away with the |
pushing and crowding that takes place
in tie limited time allowed for casting a
ballot. This plan has been suggested
before, but it has been opposed on the
ground that it would cost money to get
a chairman, secretary and tellsrs, as it
would be expected that those officers
ought to be paid if they devoted time to
the purpose. AS it now is it is hard
work to get tellers who must sit in the
place for over an hour without compen-
sation. There were several voters who
would have cast ballots Tuesday if the
tine for that purpose had not been con-
fined to the narrow limit of one hour.
On the matter of appropriations the
extension of the time for voting would
be of especial benefit. Under the present
system tickets for the appropriations are
printed and are not distributed until the
evening of the meeting. Then they lie
on table near the ballot box. On Tues
day evening the custom was slightly
changed and tickets were thrown into
the audience, giving the voters a chance
to look them over, but it was noticeable
that many walked up to the ballot boxes
and took from the pile of tickets lying
near, ballot, which was deposited in
the box without the voter even looking
| it over. Right off the table and right
into the box was the way it was done in
those cases. If the appropriation tickets
were printed and circulated in advance
the voters would have chance to look
them over and consider the questions
presented for their consideration. OF the
PIP votes cast on this subject Tuesday
evening, it is safe to say that at least
one-third were thrown into the box with
out the voter having definite idea of
what he was doing.
| Another point that has been suggest
ed is that there should be regulation
whereby candidates for membership on
the Board of Education should be COM
PEELED to make their intentions known
at least ten days before the election, and
that all names should be printed on one
ticket. This would prevent the spring.
ing of tickets at the last moment. This
idea was suggested by the writer when
he was a member of the Board of Edu-
cation, and he went so far as to have an
amendment to the school Law prepared
covering that point, but he was never
able to get it introduced in the Legisla-
ture. Perhaps it will come later, and
the gentlemen who have been talking
on the general subject of school meet
Iings may be able to bring about the de-
1