Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-05-17
DENroRALIZED VOTERS


n the voters of Pennsylvania will
heave a sigh of relief over the
Termination of the most exasperating
primary campaign of recent years.
Under the present system of nomina-
tions the conditions are intolerable and
the next Legislature must restore
something like sense to the primary
ballot law.
Right here in Harrisburg many cleo
ton boards have declared they will
not again serve without some substdn-
tial relief in the way of additional
members and increased compensation.
Hours after the polls opened yester-
day many boards were incomplete in
their membership and the Dauphin
County court was called upon TO give
advice as to how to proceed in more
than one case. And all as the re-
suit of alleged reform of the primary
system and the manner of choosing
candidates.
One protest after another has been
voiced in the last year or two and with
the increasing difficulties of nomi
mating candidates for Office the Legis-
lature will be compelled to take def
mite action upon some remedial
measures. Whatever of evil existed in
the old convention plan was not a whit
worse than that of the present cum
bersome method. Not only is it diff
icult to express an intelligent choice
respecting candidates; it is likewise
inconvenient and expensive. Iester-
day it was necessary for the voter to
place between forty and fifty marks
upon his ballot to express his full
choice of candidates. He was fortu-
nate if in thus marking his ballot he
did not defeat the very purpose of
his going to the polls. Many intel
ligent voters admitted today that they
left the booth with no very adequate
conception of their duty as good citi-
zens. Other voters did not go near
the polls owing to the complicated and
difficult method of voting.
But that is not all of it, Election
boards are expected to begin the count
of the vote Immediately upon the clos
ing of the polls. After sitting all day
to supervise the casting Of the ballots
they are supposed at once to start Of
fetal computation of the vote. This
means onerous and veXatious labor
during most of the night and in some
cases far into the next day.
Election officers assert that much of
the delay in announcing results could
be overcome through a change in the
law which would permit the counting
of the ballots every hour, reserving any
publicity regarding the balloting until
after the polls were closed in the
evening. There could be no rea-
sonable objection to such a change of
the law. 1t would enable the cleo
tion board to compute the returns at
hourly intervals during the day and
before the members became so eX-
hausted with their labors as TO be
almost unfit TO compile the figures of
complicated ballot such as resulted
from the controversies of the several
parties this year.
But aside from all this there is
lHTOuSH HOul the CldIe IO-udN leellnS
of dissatisfaction growing out of party
dissension and the breaking down of
ordinary political ethics in the raiding
of one party by the voters of an
other.
Inasmuch as the American system
of government is based upon parties,
the changes of our election laws which
have encouraged the disruption of
party lines through coalitions under
the present ballot system would seem
to justify return to the simple ballot
and more sensible method of making
nominations.
After the experience of yesterday in
this State a general demand from
voters of all parties for a return to
simpler and more economical forms
of primary expression at the polls may
| be expected.