The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-04-12

capable and conscientious public officials, they must be able to nom- mate capable and conscientious can- didates. Under the present system, It is next to impossible to nominate anyone who is not part and parcel of some political machine. How many of your friends know the rules of their respective political parties In regard to nominating town and city officials? How many take the trouble to vote in primaries, when held? The very fact that so many people don't even know how the nominees are selected indicates that the nominating process is in the hands of the professional politicians, and that the system is stacked against the true independent voters
 To be nominated for any office, one must stand in with those who control the party machinery. He must be able to muster the support of majority of the delegates to a convention, which, in turn, means that he must make many promises that will tie his hands, if later he is elected. And in those voting dis tricts wherein primary elections may be held, the voter only has the choice of voting for several candi- dates to convention, where his choices, even if elected as delegates, constitute only small part of the total number of delegates who final ly select the party ticket of nom- inees. What chance has the inde- pendent candidate? What chance has the voter?
 Hand Picked"
 Then, when the voters go to the polls at the general election, they are presented with two or more tickets of candidates-all of them hand picked-and told to make your choices from these lists, and like it!" Furthermore, under this so- called majority system" when three tickets are in the field, it often happens, as in 1885, the largest or ganized minority elects the admin istration, while the divided majority is taken for another of the well known rides. Those people who, without serious consideration, say that "all we have to do to get good government is to elect good men" should remember the election system now in force and they will realize that it is only by accident that "good men" can be elected, and it is that system which P. R. is designed to remedy; P. R. makes it possible to reolly elect good men,"
 En the first place, P. R. places the nominating process within reach of all citizens and all organizations. Ii a citizen wants to run for the coun- cil or for the board of education; or if some organization or nationality group wants to put up ticket of candidates, all they have to do is to circulate nominating petitions. Not less than two hundred or more than two hundred and fifty names are required to place a candidates name on the ballot at the general election, although each voter may sign only one petition for council, and one for the board of education. So you see that it will be possible, under P. R., to nominate candidates who are really qualified to hold the offices they seek; it will be possible to nominate many "good men" and the voters will have the opportunity of voting for their real choices at the general election.
 Effective Ballots
 In the second place, P. R. makes ballots effective instead of wasting them. P. R. provides the means whereby each one-seventh of the voting population elects represent ative of its own free choice. In the original Connecticut town meetings, the voters of each town actually congreated in group and conducted their election as a body. Suppose that today all Waterbury voters could assemble at the municipal athletic field, and place the candi- dates on platforms on the field, and then gather around their favorite candidates for aldermen. If 35,000 voters assembled, and seven alder men were to be elected, 5000 voters would be enough, more than enough. to elect any one candidate. So if more than that number happened to gather around Candidate A, they would soon see that number of them were wasting their votes by standing there, as A would be elect ed anyway. Therefore, some of these voters would move away to candi- dates of their next choices.
 And if Candidate x had only 100 voters standing at his platform, he and those voters would see that he could not be elected, so they would walk over to other candidates plat forms, where their votes could be made effective. After about half hour of this, there would be just seven candidates left, each with , 5 900 voters. That would be true majority rule, for each of seven equal sized election groups would elect an alderman of its own free choice, and votes would not be wasted on pluralities for winning candidates, or on candidates who were defeated.
 That Is proportional representa- ton, or "P. R., Peoples Rule" How ever, it is all done by ballot, and the election would be conducted in vot- ing booths in the voting districts. in the usual way. Each voter would be handed a ballot on which the names of all candidates are printed, with out party designations. The voter would mark the figure "1" for his first choice, "2" for second choice, 8" for his third choice, and so forth. He could vote for more than seven, if he has choices for more than seven. After the voter has cast his ballot, the ballot does his walking from candidate to candidate" for him.
 Counted In Public
 When the polls close, the ballots are assembled in a large hall and are counted in public. If 36,000 valid ballots have been cast, we see that 1t is possible for eight candidates to get 4,500 ballots each. However, since we are only electing seven, if we