The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1920-10-12
THE TICKET
To be Voted Nov. 2. and instructions
How to Vote 1t


about how TO cast their ballots. What |
the white schools are we all know, or
can know. for they are taught public |
Iy. The negroes have kept their
schools to themselves.
The history of voting in this state,
and other Southern states, is interest |
ing. Up to 1883 voting was easy,
counting the ballots easy and cheat
ing easy. Then as now a voter had
to register and pay poll tax. Just
about there the similarity ended. The
tickets were not provided by the
state but by the party or faction,
sometimes by an individual. Each
party or faction had its own ticket.
II, when the polls opened, one party
had no tickets printed, It's adherents
couldn't vote. unless they wrote out
on paper of the right size the
names of their candidates, thing
practically impossible to do. or, what
was but little more easy, secured tick
cts from the other side, scratched the
names of the candidates and wrote
theirs in their place. At first, each
ticket was generally headed with the
party embIem-not the democratic
donkey and the republican elephant,
but the democratic rooster and the
republican eagle This led to much
sharp and some rough work-men of
one party would sometimes get into a
printing Office and steal the tickets
of the other, or hold UP messenger
carrying tickets to polling place.
These tactics were not confined to the
South-they were practiced all over
the country, and showed lack of prin-
ciple on both sides. In the South
voting ever since the beginning of
the attempt to throw off carpetbag
rule, has been struggle to attain and
maintain white supremacy. If this
had not been done, each southern
state would be a tract of poverty, ig-
norance and insecurity, the Ireland of
America, ten times worse off than Ire,
land ever has been. AS soon as the
democrats obtained the upper hand,
they began keeping the negro vote
under by various expedients. One of
these was by printing the names of
democratic candidates on a ticket
with republican emblem at its head,
and practicing various artifices to put
these in the hands of the negroes,
who could not read. The republicans
partly balked this by instructing the
negroes to vote only the tickets given
them by their white bosses. How
ever, at that time. party lines were
not drawn so closely. In many coun-
ties there were respectable and pro-
gressive republicans, who had the
confidence and good will of some dem
ocrats, who would scratch their party
tickets to put in one or more repub
ll:can names, and sometimes there
would be Independents. who would
vote for part or all of the republican
candidates and would consequent!
ask republican managers for tickets
In every large precinct, democrats
unknown to the republican managers
would claim to be Independents, woul'
obtain ticket or two in the morning
counterfeit them and have the votin,
places smothered with them befor
noon. In few years, however, tn
democrats decided to depend on tn
. illiteracy of the negroes. They pre-
scribed by law that the ticket shoul
be of an uniform size and style 0
| TYPE, with no party symbol, and the
should be issued at the polling place
instead of by party candidates an
managers. The tickets were stacke
lin small piles by the ballot boxes an
each man, in full view of all, took hi
ticket and either put it nnmediatel
in the box. or before doing so, scratch
II ed it to suit his preference. TIL
stacks. of tickets were occasional
. shifted, so neither a republican nc
, democrat could tell by their position
! where their party tickets lay. TIL
: was a fair arrangement, for ever
man who could read could easily pic
out his ticket. It was a fairer systel
than that by which the polite;
r worker put the ticket into the hand
of the ignorant voter.
Il In 1890 The state of Florida put
i effect the eight-ballot box systeI
+ This was bitterly denounced by tt
republicans, but voting under it w;
perfectly fair according TO the idt
which about that time began to pr
: vail, not only in Florida but In a
+. English speaking countries. that ed
cation should win in elections. The
we're eight ballot boxes at each pol
ing place, and eight sets of ticket
!. !. The ballot boxes were plainly markt
! land the tickets were plainly printe
I. A man came up to the polling plac
? took his tickets one by one, and p
: each one in the box where it belonge
Z or where he thought it belonged. O
: casionally the managers changed t
position of box or stack of tic
cts. Tt was a perfectly fair law.
u a man could read, he could with ]
L. trouble select his tickets and put the
ID in the right boxes. A ticket in t
at wrong box was not counted. It CO
the republicans thousands of vot
and the democrats hundreds. II
system was first, we believe, put