Evening star., 1944-12-16

ton. Some of us felt that since
President Roosevelt was expected to
get most of the soldier votes the
Governor was moved more by con-
Germ for his candidacy than for the
constitution.
Furthermore, the New York war
ballot law appeared designed to
make voting difficult rather than
easy. To quote the words 1 am now
engaged In eating, l said: He
dewey has simply made voting SC
hard for any New York citizen
serving his country overseas that
very few of them are expected to
vote" And In another article: ut
seems to be agreed that the per-
centage who succeed in
voting next fall will be much the
smallest percentage of those from
any important Northern State"
Even Farley Opposed Law.
Well, all of that was agreed" by
q lot Of people, including some Re-
publicans, who joined in urging the
opNCIilol W ICSpIlNCl lllC btSlS1d-
ture to amend the law So mild a
man as James A. Farley. who GER
tainly was not tearing his shirt in
behalf Of Gov. Dewey's opponent
was moved to describe the State
law as "a monstrosity, a reservoir
of antiquities and a preparation
of deception"
The attacks on the State statute
and on the Governors attitude
seemed TO be soundly based. But
while we were engaged in proving
this to our own satisfaction. ap-
parently New York State officials
were engaged even more earnestly
In proving the Governors conten-
ton, AS clumsy and complicated as
the State law may be, they unques-
tionably made 1t work.
Ali the figures are not in. but
there are sufficient now to reveal
that the percentage of votes cast by
New York servicemen compares IA
vorably with that Of other States,
Two OF the States held up as models
curing the campaign were New
York's next-door neighbors. Penn
sylVania and New Jersey. Yet it is
revealed that whereas almost 7 per
cent OF the vote in New York was
cast by service men and women. in
Pennsylvania their votes represent
ed only 6 per cent of the total. To
put it in another way, whereas the
population Of Pennsylvania is "a per
cent of New York's population. the
Pennsylvania soldier vote was only
60 per cent of the New York soldier
vote. New Jerseys soldier vote, on
the other hand, was 38 per cent of
the New York vote, although its
population is only 80 per cent of
New York's.
Special Survey Started.
The whole story of how the men
and women in the services voted
never will be known, since in some
States the law forbids any separate
canvass of civilian and service votes
and in still other States local cleo
ton boards combined the two in
making their reports. The United
States Census Bureau has begun
special survey designed to obtain
accurate figures on the soldier vote
for the entire country, but the re-
suits probably will not be known for
several months. QueStionnaires have
been sent to all States asking for
figures on the number of applica-
tions received, the number found
invalid; the number of State ballots
sent out, the number returned, how
many were valid and how many
invalid; the number of Federal bal
lots received and the number valid
and invalid. This survey should give
Congress a better basis for legisla-
ton next time than it had last
spring. That is in case, God forbid
we are still engaged in war come
next election time.
Meantime, how did the BOYS and
the girls in the armed services vote?
With returns from only 80 States
now available, and some of them
Uerely estimates, it is indicated
that the total number of service