Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-02-11
SCHOOL ELECTION FARCE.

There Is something radically wrong with inc
u.,,.r in which the school elections in the
various towns and townships throughout the
state were held on Tuesday. The law under
which these elections are held must be extreme
Nv lax to permit such things as have been re-
ported from different places.
Apparently, the election may be held at any
hour of the day that those In authority may nx'
rbere seems to be nothing to compel the polls
ha;rg kept open longer than one hour. There
.ra No official ballots provided and no particular
Mace for holding the election. If there are any
ruIes at all to govern the election they are very
neaere; the b~alloting is done without the
t,liehtest attempt at secrecy. The whole thing
Is a farce as far as any regularly conducted
election is concerned.
The principal trouble seems to be tnat mere
tofore the school election in the more rural dis
tricts have been a most perfunctory affair. Inc
women, except in rare instances, nave never
taken any part; the men, as a rule have SHOWN
but little interest and those already elected
have been able to perpetuate themselves IN
office as long as they desired to remain on the
school board. When they have decided to quit
It was a simple matter to get a handful of voters
together and elect whomsoever they wanted as
their successor. Thus the rural schools have
been handled from year TO year until the peo-
pIe come to take It as a matter OF course ana
no one has ever seen fit to question the methods.
This. year, however, with the women exercis-
ing the full rights of suffrage there has been
an increased interest all over the state. 1t is
natural that the women should be particularly
concerned about the management of the puphc
schools. In many places women candidates
were put in the field for Tuesdays election and
a lively contest ensued. But with no control
over the hours of holding the election; with no
voice as to where the election should be held
or how many polling places there should De;
with no official ballot on which all the names
OF the candidates appeared guaranteeing an
equal chance for all. and with machine politi-
cans taking full advantage of the laxness of the
law governing the election, the so-called indie
pendent candidates had practically no chance at
all.
~Assemblyman Peterson has announced his in
tention to have an Investigation. If possible, OF
the way the school election was held In Roose-
welt. But the election in Roosevelt was only an
extreme case Of what went on all over the state.
The whole system is wrong. The law regulat-
Ing these school elections needs a radical re-
vision. Proper safeguards must be placed
about the ballot box; official ballots with duly
nominated candidates must be provided; ample
time must be given for all to cast their ballot
and accommodations must be provided to assure
absolute secrecy in preparing the ballot.
The legislature is now in session. No greater
-.-.sa. ao,yd 10 repdarad fba rural communities
of this state than to have the school election act
20 amended that such a farce as took place on
Tuesday in so many towns and townships
throughout the state cannot be repeated another
year.