The Alaska citizen., 1916-11-13

year lHt bo9JpH bureau scored rec
 ord by announcing the returns only
 three votes off from the official
 figures
 The election machinery of The As
 sociated Press is at work in all the states but it is developed to it's highest pitch of efficiency in the
 statcs having the largest electoral
 votes and he smallest average of l consistency in presidential years
 Given d definite line on New York. on Massachusetts, which is invariably
 prompt, and reflection of the vote ] i'll the Central and West States,
 where difference in time Is d handicap t5 early returns, the re- suit oi the presidential election may
 be pretty definitely announced at an
 early hour and often the full extent i ot thv victory indicated, so accurately | has the gauge of election figures been fixed by previous experience Knowing #ith d near certainty whether t Is Wilson or Hughes will be suuclen, Tor the throngs at the | bulletin boards on election night. but | The Associated Press goes on to slui bigger Jask than the mere an nouncymen, ol the result That would not so lar to complete the morning paper. There are columns to uu w,th state tabulations. with lists oI governors elected. the de tailed constitution of the next United ! States senate and the house of rep | yescntatiyes. and similar tables for each state, locally handled on the constitution of the state legislature 1 There are comprehensive leads" to write III summary of the figures, and contests tn particular states to be ex- | pIained
 There js one human cog in the ,iecoan night machine hat is even Iuorr interesting han the general n auastr Of The Associated Press He is the Paul Revere of the backwoods dIegl,,a who sallops his horse o: usyos his motorcycle on election right to the nearest telegraph station. 1g,rr are still some remo'e regions  a great many of them where the IolluS or a presidential vote is al most game oI solitaire. and from some of them Couriers must ride 1 twenty miles before they can release 1 by wire to d waiting nation the fact that plurality oI one for......... Git would be partisan to anticipate the name) had been cast at Ranch 49. There are several such remote dis lricts even in New York state whence news leaks almost as slowly as in Montana and Idaho. And there is no deprecating the importance of the vote that is cast at Clover Four Corners. It is the will of the people that rules, and The Associated Press can know no distinction when it comes to the counting of honest ballots. Otherwise it would not pay Tor that tWentymile ride.
 New Jersey has been thorn in the flesh ol the election tabulators for many years. In the first place it refus- es to close its poll until ' o'clock, and it's law requires that the counting of the entire ballot from top to bottom shall be complete before another ballot IS taken up. There are up wards of 24O names on the Jersey ballot this year in some of the cities, and it is doubtful whether on election night President Wilson will know how his own state has gone The Jersey method is employed in some of the central and western states, adding further handicap to the difference in time, but New York and d majority of the eastern states put the presidential electors on a separate ballot to facilitate the count.
 If the foregoing has not helped you to visualize the process by which the greatest gathering organization tries to satiate your election curiosity and furnish masses of figures to back up it's announcement of the victory, picture to yourself this one fact: On election night the facilities for wire communication over practically the entire country are for the moment devoted almost exclusively to the collection and distribution of returns. The mileage of those wires run up into the millions. The Associated Press leased wire system itself is almost doubled on election night, and the telegraph companies In their own way are cooperating directly or in directly in the great effort to bring the figures to a head.
 Consider all these human factors tbo,,.,pIc of nnnratCrc he