Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-11-04

1t 10 q little difficult for many per-
sons TO UNDERSTAND why election re-
turns arc 50 slow In arriving, and
why. in North Dakota, for instance,
It may b from two to several days
after an election before tho people Of
the state can know whom they have
elected governor.
Paasan8 ovor the tho~ughtlexnee OF
thoa who telephone before the time
has arrived for the polls to close to
ask what Is the result OF the election.
1t Is apparent to the ordinary indiv1d-
ual that q reasonable time must elapse
to permit no counting Of the ballots.
the transmission Of he figures to the
county seat, and their forwarding
from the hfty-odd county seats In the
states to the places of compilation
which have been arranged for, and
their final assemblase in ono table.
While this takes time. with proper
cooperation on the part of all con-
cerned, every person within reach of
a telephone could have. within five
or six hours after The closing Of the
polls, Information on 80 per cent Of
the vote cast in the one contest Of al
sorbing interest which char1cterizes
every election. The only exception to
this would be in the case OF bad
weather conditions. The missing votes
would be those from the few pre-
cincts so remote from communication
AS to be out of reach. The number of
these is almost negligible. Had there
been this 100 per cent team work the
people of North Dakota who had
chosen to sit up for the information
could have known by : or 3 O'Clock
on Wednesday morning whom they
had elected, unless the margin be-
tween the two candidates were mar
rowed down to a few hundreds. In
that case the complete and exact vote
might be needed to determine.
Two things would be necessary to
produce this result. First there must
he recognition on the part Of all elec-
ton officials everywhere that IN order
TO provide adequate service it is alb
solutely necessary to count, first of all,
the vote on the contest of greatest In
,crest. in the recent election the con-
test for governor. Many officials now
10 this, but the failure of some de-
ranges the entire system.
Second. there must be no delay any
where from the time the preliminary
count is made at the polling place un-
til the work of compilation has been
completed and the totals have been
distributed broadcast.
In almost every a the delay is
at h polling place. Election boards
here and there, in spite of tears, pray
crs and maledictions, will persist in
taking the ballots Is they run. count
ing down the entire List of names on
each ballot. 10 that it is impossible to
know what has been the vote of the
precinct N the n Office Of consum-
ing interest until the last vote for con-
stable has been duly checked of. That
is one trouble. Another is that after
completing the h official in
charge will lock up and go home to
enjoy a few hours Of we'll earned rest
before he reports to anybody.
The situation would not be serious
if the only persons incommoded were
county auditors and newspaper peo-
pie. They are accustomed to grief,
anyway, and a little more of it scarce
~ signified. But there are several
hundred thousand people who, as citi-
ZEN are interested in the returns. and
uho ora op<SS1od IN hovo. thar, ~ the
earliest possible moment. 1t is not
Just that they should be compelled to
wait days for information which they
might just IS we'll have in a few
hours.