Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-11-28
Change Needed

Declaring that the use of voting
machines helped to defeat the re-
cent amendment in the general cleo
ton the League of Minnesota Munich
palities, in an Interpretation of the
vote released this week by c. c. Lud-
Wig, executive secretary of the League,
expresses the view that the time is
now ripe for the people of Mime
sofa to change the amending proce-
dure in their Constitution.
The report states that the amend
ment proposed to rectify an unreaSOn-
able publication requirement apply
ing to home rule charter amend
ments, and was officially sponsored
by the home rule charter cities of
the state as well as the Legislature
and the League of Municipalities. The
measure was endorsed by the Mime
sofa Editorial Association and many
other civic organizations. 1t was pre-
sented as a non-partisan, non-con-
troversial measure with no organized
opposition and substantial e f orts
were made throughout the state to
ing of the amendment.
Out of total vote cast of 1901
573, the Eyes" votes totalled $685.
BIS, the mo votes totalled 287 1886,
and blank ballots totalled 378,472.
The Eyes" votes were 40 per cent
of the total votes cast, with so per
cent necessary for adoption. Although
the ballots cast ION the question"
were more than two to one in favor
of the amendment, the blank bal
lots again did the trick of defeating
deserving amendment.
Almost two-thirds of the counties
gave the amendment majority but
exceptionally low votes in Ramsey
and st. Louis counties offset the state
wide trend The ratio of Eyes" votes
to ballots cast was lowest in Ramsey
county with 19 per cent. It was high
est in Lake county with 50 per cent
In Pine county the ratio was So
per cent.
The report explained that the low
ratios in Ramsey and st. Louis coun-
ties were undoubtedly due to the use
of voting machines in the cities of
st. Paul and Duluth. Throughout
the state the provision of separate
and differently colored ballot had
the effect of automatically calling
the voters attention to the amend
ment whereas on the voting machines
the proposition did not stand out and
the voters using the machines neg
lected to pull the levers either Eyes"
or mo-.
This is we'll illustrated in Ramsey
county where the Eyes" votes in the
city of St. Paul were only 16 per
cent of those cast but those in rural
Ramsey were Sc per cent of those
cast. In rural st. Louis county, the
favorable vote was so per cent while
in the city of Duluth it was only 81
per cent. In Minneapolis, on the
other hand, where voting machines
were not used, the vote in and out
side the city varied only one per cent
from the county as whole which
gave the amendment So per cent.
It is pointed out that these returns
afford good illustration of the in
herent difficulty of amending the
Minnesota Constitution. Minnesota
is one of only few states which re-
'quires majority of the votes cast
at the election. Three-fourths of the
states amend their constitutions by
majority based on votes on the ques-
ton.
This effort to amend the home
rule charter procedure set forth in
the Minnesota Constitution was the
fourth attempt in Al years (1912, 1924,
1888, 1940) to accomplish reasonable
change and yet the tremendous num-
Der of blank ballots has succeeded in
defeating the effort each time.