Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-10-29

gether on cooperative basis un.
der the supervision of the established
| Associated Press bureaus. Thousands
OF special forms have been prepared
for the systematic conduct of the ser.
vice, thousands of typewriter sheets
distributed listing candidates and
showing votes four years ago as a ba.
sis Of comparison, special correspond
ents appointed and special wire facili-
ties arranged for this particular work
County is Made Unit.
In the collection OF returns, the
county is everywhere made the unit,
and it Is the purpose of the system
to hear definitely from every cleo
ton district Of the more important
states. In New York state alone these
district number $500. In Illinois
there are over 5000 and in other
states prOpOrtiOnately large number
of districts to be heard from. TAX
ing New York state as typical OF the
system that will be followed in prin-
cipale at least by other states, the
service there is worked out broadly a.
follows:
New York is Center.
Having arranged for some compe-
tent man to take charge of each coun-
~ upstate and for cooperative effort
with the New York City News asso-
citation for the collection Of the met
r0p0litan returns, the New York head
quarters OF The Associated Press 10
made the center of tabulation. The
upstate county man is stationed at
the most convenient center, usually
the count seat, from which he throws
out his net for the gathering of his
local returns.
For the special work in hand,
twenty-five extra wires are strung I'm
to The Associated Press Offices In
New York, giving direct and exclus-
i've connection with the principal
cities. Before the operators is stack
ed a varied assortment of printed
forms. whose blank spaces await the
figures that tell the story. There are
pink forms. blue forms, buff, green,
yellow and white to make the various
compilations OF the vote for president.
governor, senate congress, and the
two houses of the state legislature.
Bankers Furnish Accountants.
In the adjoining room there have
been assembled a staff of a hundred
men to serve as tabulatOrs. Pre-
vious to the election The Associated
Press has arranged with some of the
best banks in the city to furnish ex-
pert accountants for this work. They
work In relays. the first crew report
ing at the close of the polls at five
O'Clock, compiling the figures until
two O'Clock in the morning.
Less than ten minutes after the
closing Of the polls. the work begins.
The first returns lin New York are
invariably from some Of the upstate
cities where voting machines are en-
ployed. There are: however. some To-
calities 0nu Cape Cod: and, down in
Maine which for years have prided
themselves, on being the first In with
their voter In such small places the
law permits the opening of the ballot
boxes as soon as 1t has been made
certain that the full vote Of the place
has been pOlled. and the result Is then
made known. n....,
First Figures Come Slowly.
1t is only by driblets that the first
figures come In, but once the avail
anche is started there is no let-up to
the tick OF the telegraph saunders.
and swarm jOf the cOlOred blanks 10
kept taking from the: receiving opera.
tors to the tabulators,e The figures
are first entered by, the stabulators and
passed along to- the designated chief
who keeps q "Doomsday Book" show
ing the running total Of I'd the vote
throughout the night. Every fifteen
minutes the business Of tabulation 10
punctuated by the issue of a bulletin
on New York state, which Is rushed
to the leased trunk lines of The A.
ISOLATED Press-and over these main
arteries and secondary Ones-s0mV
$1,000 miles OF them, some eighty dif-
ferent circuits-the news circulates.
keeping all OF the nine hundred and
forty newspaper-members of the as
ISOLATION posted on how the country
10 going.
The form of these bulletins in
known to thousands who have seen
them flashed on the election screens:
"606 election precincts out of
$500 in New York state, for
president give: Wilson ;
Hughes -
So, district by district, these bull
letins grow until it looks so certain
to some of the experts that one paper
or another will concede somebody's
election. But the Associated Press
comedies nothing. 1t must know.
Severe Test in 1900.
In the year of the Odell- Coler fight
for governor in New York in 1900, its
system had a severe test. Coler ran
up big vote in New York city, and
the heavy vote of Odell upstate was
overlooked by many of the newspa-
pers which conceded Coler's election.
The Associated Press. in the midst of
this confusion was led to wonder II
its figures were right The general
manager had an abiding confidence In
his men and figures, but in face Of
concession that some of the papers
were making Of Coler's election. some
thing must be done to check the mat
ter. He ordered recount. The sys-
TEN provided for just such an emer-
gency, and this Odell-Coler year ID
the only time it has ever been called
into play. All of the county returns
after being tabulated. are hung on q
large rack of hooks, classified by
counties, where they are Immediately
available for recount. on the hooks
came these hundreds Of kilograms