The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-12-15
EXPLAINS new
MANAGER FORM
OF BALLOTINC
Calls Proportional Repre-
Sentation Best Voting
System at Meeting.

AAAS RAOrCAbAOA IVY NbIAAbcibAOAA
system of voting was explained to
legislators and members of the In
dianapolis City Manager League
legislative committee Friday night
at the Chamber of Commerce, by
Walter j. Millard, of Cleveland
o., field secretary of the Proper
tional Representation League.
The system is being used in city
manager elections in Ohio and has
been successful, Willard said.
This form of voting does away
with a primary, or first selection,
and brings all selections for city
manager commissioners through
one casting of ballots.
The system as it would work in
Indianapolis from the nomination
to final count for the seven COM
missioners under the manager form
Of government, as explained by
Millard, follows:
Many Can Enter
AS many persons as desire can be
placed in nomination by obtaining
signatures of l per cent Of the
voters.
Each name is placed before the
people several weeks before the
election after the petition is certi-
fed 1t is then the duty of the
voters to become acquainted with
the names and persons of the NOM
-lnees and select their preferences.
On the day of the election, the
voters go to the polls, not to vote
for any given number of commits
sionerS, but as many as they may
desire out of the entire nomination
list. This number may run from
one to twenty, if that many persons
have obtained nomination petitions.
The voters duty is to place first
on his ballot the name of the per-
son he most desires to see elected.
In sequence he places the names OF
other nominees second, third
fourth and fifth on the ballot as he
prefers them.
Use Arbitrary Figure
All votes received by the clerks
under this form of election are
sorted as to first choices. They arc
distributed in this form to other
clerks who bind them up in precinct
lots and mark them as Hoover.
Precinct A., Ward B."
Then the counting starts. The
total number of ballots cast is di-
vided by the number of place to be
filled and one is added to the num-
Der OF votes it takes to elect any
commissioner. For instance, if there
are tWenty-eight voters and seven
places to be filled the voters are di-
vided by seven, which is four and
which, plus one, is five, In other
words any of the candidates receiv-
ing five votes is elected. The bal
lots used to actually elect by reach
ing this total are then dead for
further action.
But if the candidate receives the
needed number of votes before all
his votes are counted, then the rest
of the ballots on which he is first
choice are thrown to the candidates
who are second choice on such bal
lots.
Point Out Advantages
If the second preference receives
sufficient number of ballots be-
fore the votes are all counted then
the vote goes to the third prefer
ence by the same procedure. This
continues on until every ballot has
been credited.
Through the mathematical COM
putation there is no danger of more
than seven candidates being elected
because the figuring has been
based on the number OF commits
sionerS elected. BY adding one to
the figure reached after the di-
vision, any possible chance of the
votes overlapping is defeated.
Willard pointed out that under
this system 10 per cent of the voters
will see their first choice elected to
the place. Twenty-nine per cent
OF the votes will be USED in the
shifting process to preferences and
only l per cent will remain to be
considered as exhausted"
Writing Name in Helps
BY voters writing their preference
on the ballots, the s-'ility of
casting vote for the man whose
name first appears on the former
Stereotyped election ballots, is erased
he said.
Usually per cent of the persons
voting at an election cast their
ballot preferences for the first man
listed. This new system of writing
in the preference does away with
the edge given to names appearing
first on ballots in general elections"
he said.
He sid there is no way of making
a nonpartisan election, but that this
system comes nearer to defeating
party politics and making voting a
civic enterprise than any other
form