The Wilmington morning star., 1944-01-22
BY WEsTBRooK PEGLER

NEW YORK,-Ever since last Nov. 3, the
day after election day except on Saturdays.
Sundays and holidays and one week when
was oft on sick report, have devoted GER
pounded on Nov. by my distinguished col.
league Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, in her
column on that day.
In that little essay, done the day before,
Mrs. Roosevelt wrote: This is election day
One year ago I was in Great Britain and
tried very hard to get an absentee voters bal
lot However, with one delay and another, il
reached me just about the date I should have
been home and so Miss Thompson and I both
failed in our civic duty last year."
This is really a bargain puzzle. That is to
say you get two puzzles for the price of one.
What does that sentence mean 1T reached
me just about the date I should have been
home and so Miss Thompson and 1 both failed
in our civic duty?'
she was still away but should have been home
and, if so, why didn't. she vote it? That one
has stuck me so far but I am still working
on it. No prompting please you may ruin
my chance for the nine silver dollars and set
me down with nothing but box of vitamins.
The other puzzle may be stated as follows:
How did Mrs. Roosevelt qualify for an alb
Sentee ballot as a citizen of the state of New
York?'
l believe this is trick question, the answer
being that she didn't because the election
laws make no provision for absentee voting by
civilians outside the limits of the United States
unless they are in the federal service, what
ever that means. Is, or was, Mrs. Roosevelt
in the federal service, and if so in what branch
and on what pay roll is, or was, she carried
and for what duties? Again and again and
again, to borrow a term from the President
himself, the people have been assured that
Mrs. Roosevelt is strictly an independent in
dividual with no official status. Yet an alb
sentee ballot did reach her somewhere, some
time. which fact. laid alongside the provisions
of the law, would suggest that for the purpose
OF this occasion Mrs. Roosevelt was regarded
as a member of some federal service.
The provision for absentee voting in the
state Constitution says the legislature may
provide conditions by which qualified voters
who are unavoidably absent on necessary bust
ness within the United States may vote and
so forth.
The election law says voter who is un-
avoidably absent on business within the United
States, which does not include Great Britain,
may vote as an absentee but must first 60
through some rigmarole with the elections Of.
ficials, including description of the duties,
occupation or business which require such alb.
sence Being patient and persistent at puz-
zles, l went to the authorities for information
that might help solve this one but even in
Albany where there are experts who know
all, the answer to the mystery remained just
that. Unless l am correct in my guess. and il
is only a stab, that, like the Newspaper guild
which permits Mrs. Roosevelt to belong, al
though ineligible, because she is distin.
guished, the elections officials who sent her
the absentee ballot did so for similar informal
reasons.
Now some people are sure to say that it is
impolite to discuss these puzzles in this way,
but assure you that this is written in ad
miration as we'll as perplexity because Mrs
Roosevelt and those who sent her the absen
tee ballot would seem to have solved in ar
offhand way problem which has been giving
Congress and those who believe in the integ
rity and sovereignty Of the states great dea
of honest worry. That is the problem of the
absentee vote for members of the fighting
forces who find themselves overseas, or alb
sent from home within the country in pres
Dental year. All this argument and the dis
! ruptive conflicts of opinion and principle coulc
be solved by the simple expedent Of passing
around absentee ballots anyway whatever the
state law may say to the contrary.