Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1925-06-05
WHAT NATION HOLDS
WORLD VOTING RECORD?

Simon Mlchelet, Washington law
yer, president of the National Get
Out The-Vote Club, has extended his
investigation of the stay-at-home vote
to all the principal countries casting
a popular vote. In a statistical
roundup of the nations at the polls,
he believes he has found the answer
to the question-"What nation holds
the world voting record?
That country is no longer the Unit
ed States. Forty years ago, when 80
per cent of American voters went to
the polls and voted, this country was
in the first column in the point of
voting efficiency. But in 1920 and
1924, when only so per cent of Amer
lean voters took interest enough to
vote for president, the United States
dropped well down to the tail of the
voting nations.
Great Britain, from whom we re-
belled in 1776 to establish a govern
ment based on the American vote, APP
pears to be making a much better
record at the polls today than Amer
lea. At the 1924 election of the
House of Commons, 76 per cent Of
the British electorate voted, and in
the preceding election 80 per cent Of
the electors of England and Wales
went to the polls. So the British are
in the running for the world voting
record, and this country has fallen
back among the "also rams"
The new Irish Free State does not
yet poll a full vote because Of fac
tional conditions, and yet in the last
election polled the vote of so per cent
of all Irish adult men and women,
which is better than half American
States can show.
Germany stands close competitor
of Great Britain in getting out the
popular vote. In the first election of
the Reichstag under the constitution
of the German Republic Is per cent of
all Germans 20 years of age and over
voted. In the 1924 election, the vote
increased by four millions and reach
ed 80 per cent of the electorate, while
in the recent presidential election,
April, 1925, the German percentage
reached 80 per cent.
The six Australian states and New
Zealand present a twenty-year record
where efficiency voting by women is
an exceptional feature. In the Unit
ed States, Canada, and most Euro
pean countries having equal suffrage
for men and women, there is usually
10 to 20 per lent lighter vote for
women than for men. But in Queens
land, Australia, and in New Zealand
women cast as large vote as men.
In some elections as high as 81 per
cent to 90 per cent of adult women
go to the polls. This is notably the
case in Queensland after the passage
Of the 1915 compulsory act, when 80
per cent of the women delivered their
votes.
A twenty-year average for the
Australian states would show approx
imately rs per cent of the electorate
voting, and in New Zealand 80 per
cent. In the 1916 referendum on mil
itary CONSUMPTION, the men cast SO
per cent of their qualified vote.
In recent 1923-24 elections, New
Zealand and Queensland have shown
record close to "a per cent, and so
would seem to be leading claimants
to the world voting record with Ger
many and Great Britain close rivals.
Belgium, Holland, and Denmark
are not far behind. By voting dis
tricts these three countries on the
North Sea range from 60 per cent to
80 per cent in their efficiency in de-
livering the ballot at the polls. Their
average is around rs per cent, or
one half better than our present
American record.
France votes fully 70 per cent OF
its electorate on the average, and in
some districts makes q higher rating.
Norway and Sweden rank well up
with Belgium and Denmark. In the
Norway election of 1920, rs per cent
Of the men and so per cent Of the
women voted, with total average Of
about II per cent. In the prohibit
ton referendum of 1922, Swedish
women in Stockholm the capital cast