New-York tribune., 1918-09-09

The soldier or sailor voters select their
own inspectors.
when the polls are open the voter
presenting himself must take an oath,
which IS printed on the back of an en-
velope, giving his name and address
and showing his qualifications. He
then prepares his ballot, placing it in
the envelope, which is sealed and deliv-
cred to the inspectors. The inspectors
simply count the number of envelopes
"hlch have been voted and which pre-
sumably contain voted ballots. The in
Spectors then make up statement Of
pallots cast IN duplicate One COM
pletc record is sent to the Secretary
OF State and enc to the Governor
Upon receipt by the Governor Of
the poll books and statement Of the
votes cast the Governor is required to
6ehver the same to the Secretary of
state, who in turn is required to notify
the various political parties that at u
date named he will open the packages
and compare the poll books. He then
Sehds the envelopes containing the bal
lots TO the various board Of election.
VINO are required to reconvene for the
purpose OF canvassing these ballots OIL
the sixth Tuesday after election
Ballots in Sealed Envelopes
by amendment to the law this wear
provision has been made for voting M
places where there are less than ter,
electors. Briefly, this provision is that
the Secretary of State in such instances
may send ballot in a sealed enyelope.
and the voter may mark it and return
1t to the Secretary of State, when it
Will be canvassed with other ballots.
in the municipal campaign of las,
year it was found that qualified voters
OF the state, who under the constitu
'tlon are guaranteed the right to vote,
were located at some three hundred
different stations on land and sea
throughout the United States. In manv
instances the ballots from the Secre-
tary OF State never reached the voter,
and IN some instances reached them
long after Election Day.
At some places last year the COM
,,nanding officers, if they happened to
De New York men and familiar with
our voting system, cooperated in the
taking of the vote
Cooperation Sometimes Refused
In other instances where command
ing officers came from states which
mad no provision for soldiers voting
IN the field, or who had been so long
IN the military service that they were
entirely unfamiliar with the subject,
refused to cooperate, and indicated
that, IN their opinion, the attempt to
hold elections at military commands
was waste of time of the men and
an interference with their military
duties. The men on shipboard could
only be reached through the New York
postoffice, and in many instances never
were reached
Under the law as it now is, the Sec
retary Of State is unable to print the
ballots until after September IL, for
Independent nominations for state of
ilces may be filed up to that date, and
If, as frequently happens, there is a
contest on these independent nomina-
tlons, 1t may be some days later before
the Secretary of State can start the
printing of the ballots, after which
comes the distribution on land and sea-
sea.
For obvious reasons it is safe to
say that only voters congregated in
large camps will have an opportunity
to vote.
GAS early as last February I called
the attention of the Secretary of State
to the fact that unless some uniform
method of handling the soldier and
sailor vote was adopted the War De-
partment might refuse to cooperate
of the secretaries of the various states
to the end that some common plan be
submitted to the War Department.
called attention to the difficulty of es-
tablishng polls for soldiers and sail
ors in active service, and suggested
that the law be so simplified that it
would require the Secretary of State
merely to send each man an official bal
lot and an envelope with form of
oath indorsed on the envelope show
ing the qualifications of the voter and
permitting the voter at any time prior
to and up to Election Day to fill out a
ballot at his convenience, place it in
the envelope, seal it and swear to the
oath before commissioned officer, and
mail that envelope as ordinary mail to
the Secretary Of State to be disposed
of in the manner now provided for
ballots cast.
Had this suggestion been adopted
by the Legislature it would have been
quite possible for the Secretary of
State 20 have reached by mail before
Election Day practically every man in
the service of the United States"