The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-05-16
LOUISIANA, NEVADA
GO SPLASH!NG WET
IN DIGEST BALLOT
Majority line.Ups Are Five on
Each Side OF Americas
Leading Question
FINAL TABLES NEXT WEEK
Double Marked Returns Show
in Favor of Modifica-
ton or Repeal

ton or Repeal
Two more states give an outright
majority for repeal Of the Eighteenth
amendment in the semi-final returns
of The Literary Digest nationwide
poll on prohibition, according to the
returns tabulated in to.morrow's issue
of the magazine.
Louisiana. and Nevada join Connec-
ticut, New Jersey, and Rhode Island
with more than a so per cent senti-
ment for repeal, plus a substantial
vote for modification.
No states other than the five previ-
ously reported, Arkansas, Kansas.
North Carolina. Oklahoma, and Ten
nessee, register a majority vote for
strict enforcement.
Nevada, with a 81 per cent vote to
annul the prohibition laws, gains
ascendan:y as the Wettest in the
Union inn this straw" referendum.
Kansas With nearly So per cent of its
ballots registered for enforcement,
continues to lead in the dry column.
or -the total of 1852, 761 votes tabu-
lated in this ninth report on the poll
1886, PIG, or 30.38 per cent. are for en-
forcement; 1,340,44l, Or 29.34 per cent,
vote for modification; and 1886, l04.
or 1924 per cent, register for repeal.
Twenty-one states show a plurality
for enforcement while two more EVIL
dence p~luralities for modification and
Is states have pluralities for repeal.
Wet Alignment Grows
The Literary Digest announces that
they anticipate next weeks returns
will be the final tabulation.
In order to clarity the division of
the modification vote a special table,
giving an analysis of defective votes
sent in during the progress of the
poll, is presented. These votes are
from those who misnlarked their bal
lots by voting for two issues instead
of one. Such ballots have not been
counted in the main returns. it is
stated.
OF the 8 ,674 ballots that were
marked for two choices, 2.527 showed
a vote both for enforcement and
modification, while 83,147 were
marked for both modification and re-
peal.
Close to the winning-post." The
Literary Digest states in its columns,
with 1852, 761 ballots tailed, Louisi-
ana and Nevada have gone over the
top-the so per cent top-for repeal.
so now there are five wet major
tiles against five dry ones. And the
wet banner has been snatched from
the East to the far West.
And the poll will end next week.
Moreover, Nevada'S majority per-
centage SURPRISES all others on the
dripping-wet side and runs neck and
neck with the bone-dry ratio of Kan
Sas.
observe: Kansas, 57.68 per cent
for enforcement; Nevada, 57.05 per
cent for repeal.
But the unterrified dry phalanx Of
Arkansas, Kansas, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, and Tennessee still stands
firm against the revised wet align
ment of Connecticut, Louisiana,
Nevada, New Jersey, and Rhode Is
land.
In fact, the unwavering stability Of
the enforcement Big Five seems al
most to forbid any fears of a falling
off in the bone-dry vanguard.
THE ninth report of The Literary
Digest prohibition poll accounts for
a new total of 1862. 761 returned bal
lots, of which 1886, PIG are marked for
enforcement. 1904 for modifica-
ton, and 1886, 1O4 for repeal.
LAS far as pluralities are concerned,
1t shows 81 states for enforcement,
two for modification, and Is for re-
peal.
Enormous interest will now center
in next weeks report. for it bids fair
to be the final %tabulation of this
great. record-breaking poll of 20,000,-
600 ballots, which has more than
justified itself by the unprecedented
response it has evoked, alike in bal
loting and in worldwide discussion.
Next weeks Digest will be well
worth preservation as the complete
record of this tremendous register of
public opinion.
will there be any last-moment sur
prises? Will Mississippi OF Texas go
over the SO per cent top for enforce
ment? Will New York or Illinois go
over the SO per cent top for repeal?
"None of those sudden shifts would
be more remarkable than Nevada's
frantic leap into a Kansas-like ma
jority.
"At this eleventh hour we present q
VnnVyo1fvy uYhiNh Seoo1y ho af intArocf n
III statistical friends. These were
ballots marked in two squares instead
of one Some had crosses for both
modification and repeal, others fol
both enforcement and modification.
THE duplication of crosses made
them ineligible for the poll count, un-
der the announced rule for voting, but
they were preserved on general prin-
ciples.
when the dry-wet dispute ovel
the modification vote first blazed out
some of our readers suggested that
the double-marked ballots, if classi'
fled, might throw some light on col
umn No. rs wetness Cd dryness."
The Literary Digest also gives thu
figures for the local check-up pol
undertaken by the Virginia CMinn.,
Enterprise, which newspaper SEN
ballots imprinted with the same three
questions used in The Literary Diges1
poll to the entire registered votins
list Of its community.
The final vote in the Virginia En-.
terprise poll shows 1884 per cent vot.
ing for enforcement; 20.69 per CEN
modification; and 52.97 per cent fol-
repeal. The Literary Digest returns
for the same city, previously an
nounced, show a vote of 81 81 per cent
for enforcement; 36.92 per cent fol
modification; and 4l.57 per cent fol