Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-24
The History of Presidential Elections
XXIV-Election Returns.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
Author of The American Government"

1 AutnOr OF Inc Am
BY midnight of November it is pos
sible, and indeed probable, that fully
half of the people of the United States
will know who is to be the next Pres1-
dent and the next Vice President. II
more have not received the news 1t will
be because they did not care to sit up
for the returns Only in case that the
result is very close will there be any
doubt by midnight of election day. Most
of the votes will have been counted and
the vast machinery of news gathering
will have assembled the results and an
nounced the verdict.
This compilation of presidential eiec-
ton returns is the most extensive and
strenuous Job performed by the news
gathering agencies of the country.
Their distribution to the waiting public
is a combined triumph for the press.
the telegraph and telephone and the
radio. None of this machinery of pro-
viding early returns is official, except
the counting of the ballots. The ON
cial count and tabulation of results may
take days, weeks or months The news
paper returns must be gathered with all
the speed which modern ingenuity can
muster.
More than half our population is in
cities, and most of this half will have
access to newspaper bulletin boards, but
many of this half, and most of the rural
population, will get its returns this year
by wireless. The radio has brought
election results into millions of house
holds. It will be the newspapers. how
ever, which gather the facts and broad
cast them, with perhaps some direct
gathering by telegraph, radio and tele-
phone companies. The great press as
sociations have their plans well laid for
the task. In every State they have Of
fees with wires reaching into every
county. At the center of this network
sit experienced men, assembling the fig
ures, using mechanical tabulators. and
flashing their results onward to central
Offices where groups of States are as
sembled, and finally to one nerve center
where the whole mass of figures is d1-
gested and the meaning read In the
light of the total possible electoral vote.
Mode of Gathering News.
At almost every precinct polling place,
as soon as the polls close, there will be
representative of a newspaper, unit
In this great web of information gather
ing. His purpose will be to learn at the
earliest moment the presidential vote Of
that precinct and to transmit the f1g-
ures. usually by telephone. to his news
paper. There are not enough regular
reporters for this work, and many news
papers will have trai',ed set 1T de-
livery boys, or a special group of high
school students, or some other force of
men or women to handle this precinct
job.
Where voting is done on voting ma
chimes the election judges will be able
to open the machines and read the
mechanically added totals within a. few
minutes after the polls close. Where
paper ballots are used the counting will
be slow, but in most places the presi-
Dental vote will be the first to be
counted and its result given unoficiaIly
to the newspaper representatives as
soon as possible. From this beginning
the chain winds its way through county
centers, State centers and regional Gen.
tiers. A few hours after the polls are
closed the people of Maine will know
that certain number of precincts in
Oregon gave Hoover so many votes and
Smith so many. Hour by hour the
flashes of news will show the progress
of the count and by midnight, unless
1t is very close, enough precincts will
have reported in Oregon to show pretty
certainly which side has carried the
State.
Difference in Time Figures.
Oregon, however, will know the Maine
result much sooner than Maine hears
from the Pacific Coast because of the
difference in time. Indeed. the West
Coast will have heard the returns from
many of the precincts in States using
voting machines even before the polls
close in the Western States.
In early days the exciting business Of
watching or listening to election returns
was unheard of. To begin with only a
few States had popular elections for the
presidency, as the Legislature chose the
presidential electors. BY 1928 all States
were having popular elections except
South Carolina, but not all were voting
on the same day. From early october
until late November, various States had
elections, and returns were gradually
collected by mail In 1545 Congress
adopted the uniform national election
law. fixing the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in November as the date
for all States. In l846 the first news
paper bulletin board displayed election
returns. Gen. Zachary Taylor, then a
citizen of louisiana, was the Wing can
didate and the New Orleans Picayune
now the Times icayune, was the news
paper which inaugurated the election
bulletin system.
The slow gathering of returns even
after telegraph wires extended every
where was once the cause of a great
election contest, in 1876. A Democratic
inquiry of a Republican newspaper
showed that the Democrats were not
sure they had won, although the Re-
publicans thought that Tilden was
elected. This doubt caused the Repub-
lican campaign manager to issue his
famous order of claim everything" On
that order was built up the background
for public opinion to support the Re-
publican claims in Louisiana, Florida
and South Carolina. which finally won
Hayes the presidency. Claim everything
remains the political managers rule to
the last ditch.
Returns Misleading.
Early election returns have often been
misleading, the last instance of this
being In 1915, when Mr.. Hughes went
to bed believing that he had been
elected, and woke up first to doubt and
then to know he had lost. The differ
ence In time from East to West created
that situation, for Wilson had won many
normally Republican States in the Far