The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-09-18

organized voting by providing that
the names Of candidates must be
rotated on the ballots, so that each
candidate will appear at the top Of
the ballot an equal number Of times
This puts q high premium on can
didates who are well known, and,
with the limits imposed by the pro-
posed Waterbury charter on the
amount O candidate may spend for |
election, the political organization,
with Its centralized control Of can
didacies and the machinery In Its |
possession for passing the word to |
Its supporters as to the desired cam
didates, goes into the nomination |
process with q decided advantage
over the well-meaning, sincere citi-
zens, who know little or nothing
about political organization activity
and cannot afford to stay in politics
long enough to learn by experience.
PICK UP 3
Utilizing Nominating Petitions
The nomination machinery with
the virtually unlimited number OF
candidates, also aids the politicians
In another way. This, and 1t Is used
In places which operate under
Up r." charters, Is by means Of dunn
my candidates who divide the sup
port of the anti-politician candi-
dates for the council. Suppose, for
example, that the strongest anti
politician candidate lives In the
South End, Is q member Of Church
A. Fraternal Order B, and Service
Club @. The politicians thereupon
persuade O resident Of the South
End, O member Of Church A, q
member Of Fraternal Order B, and
o member of Service Club @, each
Of whom has o following In his
group, to become candidates. The
result Is that the strong candidate,
who started OF with expectation Of
@ considerable flrst choice vote
from four groups, finds that block
Of first choice votes Is split Ave
ways. II Is amazing that O scheme
Of such transparency works, amaz-
ing that Is to any one who has not
had an opportunity to observe the
astounding gullibility Of the aver
age citizen regarding politics and
government. Few persons are able
to Withstand fattery, especially
when IL takes the form Of politi.
clans pleading with citizen to sac
rifice himself for the cause Of good
government. The victims are known
In the argot Of politics as "fat cats"
and are valuable chiefly for cam.
paign funds.
The New York charter is slightly
different from that proposed In
Waterbury In that candidates may
have party designations on the bal
lot, or may run without them. Study
Of the Manhattan vote In 1887, how
ever, illustrates the manner In
which O surplus Of candidates, divid-
ing @ block Of votes, can result In
the defeat Of all Of them. The
American Labor Party, for example,
ran only one candidate for the
council, and he had 35,578 first
choice votes, being elected through
transfers on the fortieth count. The
Citizens National Party had four
candidates, who polled O combined
total Of 67,72i first choice votes, but
elected no one.
6VAsASAuhs SuAA Ava tkaSE S0SAAbtASkA
their chances In Up. r." election
by throwing In additional candi-
dates to lengthen the ballot and so
confuse the ordinary, non organiza-
ton vote. In Brooklyn, two years
ago, there were 90 candidates on
the ballot for the election OF nine
members Of the council. Such O con-
dtt}as, ~ nA,,raa aaNay%lata iu s,u1ii-
fies the objective Of an earlier group
OF election reformers, those who
campaigned for the short ballot.
In theory, In the actual election,
O political organization could divide
Its membership into squads, each
designated to cast o "bullet VOTE"
that Is O ballot on which only one
choice Is marked, for one OF the
organization favored candidates,
each squad being slightly larger
than the probable election quota.
Such @ scheme would elect the or.
ganization slate on the first count.
Few political organizations have
quite that much control, however
and such O scheme further throws
away the chance which all poll.
ticians love to do favors In the way
OF distributing their second, third
and other choices among other can.
didates on their own slate.
How To Rig Election
The way the "P. r." election Is
rugged by the politicians In one
large city Ia O combination OF man.
ipulation OF nomination petitions
and influence OF the secondary
votes. In this particular city there
Is q certain section largely inhab-
tied by members OF one race. The
politicians persuade and promote
o large number Of council candi.
dacies among members OF this race,
no member OF which has ever been
elected TO the council. Each OF
these sponsored candidates takes
the stump vigorously to urge ell his
friends TO get out on election day
and mark their ballots for him as
their first choice In order that
their race may at last have repre-
sentation In the council. Then the
candidate goes on to urge that his
friends mark Mr.. Jones, one OF the
organization candidates as their
second choice When the votes are
counted, the racial candidates have
killed each other off and are elm.
mated early due to the small NUM-
Der Of their first choice ballots, but
on the transfers, the recorded sec
ond and third choices from this
district for the organization candi-