J'K 1994 UC-NRLF 65 $B 313 aaM o CD d/ ■«?«:="-"=-'==; ^O m DEFEATING THE VOTERS AT THE POLLS BY MARJORIE SHULER M STEBBINS & COMPANY BROOKLYN. NEW YORK ti27 Union Street Oi£ DEFEATING THE VOTERS AT THE POiLSiiCi BY MARJORIE SHULER STEBBINS & COMPANY BROOKLYN, NEW YORK liST Union Street • • • • • • • • • • •* • • • • • • • •, • • • •• ••• ••••• ••• •••••• ••••. * ' St^i^fo** €^ Copyright, 1922 BY STEBBINS & COMPANY CHAPTER I THE VOTE AND THE BALLOT What Is a Vote? — A vote is the expression of opinion. It is of value only when there is an honest, efBcient means for recording it. The chief problem of a democracy is the creation and maintenance of such means, so that for each citi- zen there shall be one vote ; and not less than one vote, because the citizen has been defrauded of his rights or is too indifferent to exercise them; nor more than one vote, because he has abused the most sacred gift of a free government and par- ticipated in trickery and corruption. Historical Development of Voting. — In early tribal and primitive governments the ballot was regarded as the natural concomitant of mem- bership in the state. It was a birthright, a sym- bol of dignity and distinction. On the day ap- pointed for elections those with the right to vote went as a matter of course to the great open spaces set apart for the polls. There they signi- fied their choice of candidates by raising their 67 520H95 68 '•:*-*'. The Voter at the Polls h^ridsf or by calling; piit as they walked single file by the counters^ Although there was not at that time so much indifference and neglect on the part of those entitled to vote as today, there were other forms of election evils, such as the great feasts to influence the masses of citizens, and pri- vate arrangements between political leaders by which the results were largely determined. With the growth of democratic ideals, the bal- lot came to be regarded as an inalienable right, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On these grounds extensions of the suffrage have been granted in the United States. In their first constitutions, only two of the original states, North Carohna and Pennsylvania, conceded to all taxpayers the right to vote. Kentucky, com- ing into the union in 1791, and Vermont, in 1792, gave universal manhood suffrage, but it took the first thirty years of the next century to make that practice general. Many states at first barred Jews and Catholics, Baptists and those of other denominations. Atheists were prohibited from holding office. Religious professions were a necessary precedent to voting. For instance in Delaware, the voter was required to proclaim his belief in the Trinity and the divine inspiration of the Bible. Not only have these discriminations been abolished, but Indians, negroes, naturalized The Voter at the Polls 69 foreign-born and women have been given the franchise. Some Old Penalties for Crime against the Ballot.— « That electoral abuses existed in the early days of the republic is evident from the penalties which the state constitutions imposed for such frauds. For bribery there were fines from ten to fifty pounds, or twice the amount of the bribe. Virginia and North Carolina nullified the election in which bribery was proved to have been used. New Jersey and Rhode Island pun- ished the offenders by disfranchisement and tak- ing away the right to hold office and to give evi- dence in a court of justice. Rhode Island re- quired officers to swear that they abhorred brib- ery, and also nullified an election if it was proved that any vote had been cast illegally. Fraud, re- peating and falsification of returns were all pro- vided for by penalties, Rhode Island being most severe with a provision for a fine of hve pounds, forty stripes on the naked back or imprisonment in the jail or stocks. South Carolina and Georgia refused bail to such prisoners. Today voting has come to be generally looked upon not as a privilege of birth or property, or even a right so much as a duty or service to the state. It is apparent that some voters are wiser, better educated, more fit to formulate opinions 70 The Voter at the Polls than others. And yet the purposes of govern- ment are not served by barring out these, rather, on the contrary, by aiding them in order to bring about an intelligent, loyal, honest electorate, which is the foundation of a democracy. Election Day Ceremonies. — Early political history points out many ceremonies incident to election day. Feasts were a frequent feature and some of the American colonies even provided for election day dinners out of the public funds. Prayers and election morning sermons were usual, these being supplanted later in American history by patriotic addresses. Many persons to- day urge a return to the custom of patriotic mass meetings and orations as a means of emphasizing the civic importance of the day. The Development of the Ballot. — The open ballot gave great opportunity for corruption, whether it was the Roman citizens herded into the sheep enclosures on the Campus Martins, calling out their choice of candidates, or the English lords gathered on great grassy fields to raise their hands, or the Pilgrim fathers dropping black and white beans into jars, or the southern planta- tion owners telling their votes to the sheriffs who called at their gates, or the Kentuckians arraying themselves in long lines to show their allegiance. Yet with all of its apparent evils there was The Voter at the Polls 71 much opposition to giving up the open vote. In 1839 John Randolph of Virginia said, "I scarcely believe that we have such a fool in all Virginia as even to mention the vote by ballot, and I do not hesitate to say that the adoption of the ballot would make any nation a nation of scoundrels, if it did not find them so." Although most of the other states had adopted the ballot by 1800, Ar- kansas was forty-six years later in giving up the viva voce vote. Missouri and Virginia kept it until the sixties and Kentucky until 1890. The introduction of the ballot did not establish the secrecy of elections, as was soon discovered. In its early days the voter who entered the elec- tion place was first enrolled. He then marked his ballot, and his choice was announced by the judges, whereupon the candidates or their rep- resentatives who were present rose and thanked him, and the spectators on that side applauded. It was easy for any observer to note how a man voted, since the political parties prepared their own ballots and printed them with vivid col- ors and flaming emblems so that they could be dis- tinguished by illiterate voters. By this same token those who bribed voters could accompany them to the ballot box and make certain that they voted as they had been paid to do. Various other abuses crept in. Political leaders who wanted for 72 The Voter at the Polls some reason to betray one of their own ticket might print ballots with the usual colors and em- blems, but substituting another name for the one marked for defeat. The illiterate or careless voter would not detect the substitution and would cast the ballot as printed. Rival parties, too, would print their own names on ballots resem- bling those of the opposing party, so that the un- wary voter was constantly casting ballots which did not at all represent his opinion. The Australian Ballot. — The evils that have been mentioned led to the campaign for the Aus- tralian ballot, to put all printing and distribution of ballots into the hands of the state and especi- ally to insure secrecy in voting. Again there was much opposition. David B. Hill, governor of New York state, approved private polling booths, but in 1881 vetoed a bill to this intent because it also provided for state control of the printing and distribution of ballots. This he declared would give dangerous powers into the hands of partisan election officials and would tend to disfranchise illiterates who were in the habit of being guided by their party ballots. In Nebraska the Australian ballot was opposed in the late eighties on the openly stated grounds that a prohibition amendment was pending the next year and might be carried imless the liquor The Foter at the Polls 73 advocates could make sure that the voters fol- lowed their instructions. The Australian ballot which was first adopted by Massachusetts in 1888, and is now in use in some form or another in every state, has the fol- lowing distinguishing features : The names of all candidates of each political party of certain num- erical strength are printed on a separate ballot at public expense; sample ballots may be circulated previous to election day, but the official ballot, the only one counted at the polls, is never given out beforehand, being distributed by sworn-in offi- cials to each citizen as he presents himself to vote ; ballots must be marked in voting booths provided for the purpose and in absolute secrecy. No state may be said to use the system entirely in its original form. The various modified forms may be divided into two groups, the party column ballot and the office column ballot. The party column ballot lists the names of the nominees under the name and usually the emblem of the party. This is supposed to be a great aid to the illiterate voter, who looks for the eagle or the sun and votes for all the names under it. Some of the parties vary their emblem with the state. The Prohibition party, for instance, uses a hatchet in Alabama, a house and yard in Dela- ware, a phoenix in Kentucky, a rose in Ohio, an 74 The Voter at the Polls anchor in New Hampshire, an armorial device in Michigan, a sun rising over the water in Indiana and Kansas and a fountain in New York. That that emblem does not always ensure the ballot of an Ignorant voter being cast according to his wishes is evident from the story of a new voter in New York state who at a recent election had one desire only and that to vote wet. He looked for the wettest emblem he could find and voted the straight ticket listed under the fountain — the emblem of the Prohibition party in that state. Political leaders may generally be said to have two reasons for favoring the party column ticket. First, because with it ignorant voters make fewer mistakes in following out their instructions, and second, because it encourages voting the straight ticket. The leader of a citizens' good government organization in congratulating the members on the results of a recent campaign, said that it was an achievement worthy of a lifetime to have taught four hundred thousand voters to split their ticket. It is this disposition to vote against in- efficient or undesirable candidates on a ticket, which pohtical bosses fight. The office column ballot, whch was the original form of the Australian ballot, lists the names of candidates under the offices to be filled with no distinguishing mark other than the name of the The Voter at the Polls 75 party to which each belongs. Those who support this system value it as requiring a higher grade of intelligence in the voters, although the neces- sity of reading this ballot is evaded by political leaders who give stencils to illiterates. These stencils are laid flat on the ballots and have cut- out places indicating the names of the candi- dates which are to be marked. Some states modify this system still further and eliminate even the name of the party follow- ing that of the candidate. This is done for two purposes. In the West the intent is to make elec- tions non-partisan and to put the choice of can- didates on individual merit instead of party considerations. In some parts of the South the purpose is to make it more diflicult for negro vot- ers to pick out the names of their party candi- dates. There are other devices also intended to confuse the negro voters, among them the use of a large number of ballot boxes at each polling place. One box will be for the county vote, an- other for the congressional, another for the state and still another for the federal, the boxes some- times being multiplied up to the number of twelve. If the voter puts his county ballot in the state box or his state ballot in the congressional box or his congressional ballot in the federal box, 76 The Voter at the Polls he loses it. Since it requires some study to get the right ballot in the right box, undesirable voters, or those considered undesirable by the election officials may readily be disfranchised. CHAPTER II THE MACHINERY OF ELECTIONS When Elections are Held. — In all states na- tional elections for the choice of President and Vice-President are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every four years. In most states elections of representatives in Con- gress take place on the same date every two years. Elections for state officials usually take place on the same date as national elections, although often in different years. There are some exceptions, including Maine, which has the state and congres- sional elections both in September; Arkansas which has its state election in September ; Georgia in October ; and Louisiana in April. There is still further disposition to separate the municipal from state and national elections, so that questions of outside policies will not con- trol the choice of municipal candidates. In order to minimize still further the influence of party policies, some states separate the election of judges from federal or state elections. 77 78 The Voter at the Polls Preceding every election due notification must always be given of the time and place, the offices to be filled, and any questions of policy to be submitted to the voters. When property owning was the principal qualification for voting, it was often the custom to have elections for the same officials on different days, so that a man might vote once in every dis- trict where he owned property. It was found that under this system political leaders moved their entire staffs from district to district. Speakers, literature, organizers, and checkbooks, especially checkbooks, made the rounds of the districts; and, since the results of the preceding days might be learned, political leaders would go to any lengths to swing the number of votes re- quired to carry an election. This has led to the present disposition to unite on one day all elec- tions in which the same candidates or policies are to be voted upon. Eligibility of Voters. — While it is customary to speak of the *right to vote,' as a matter of practice suffrage is given not as a question of in- dividual right alone, but to those who are able to exercise it for the benefit of the state. Voting is the machinery set up by the state for carrying forward its own existence. The right to partici- pate in that machinery is no more inherent in The Voter at the Polls 79 every resident regardless of ability, than is the right to serve as governor, as member of a legis- lature, or as commissioner of education. All states restrict the right to vote to citizens twenty-one years old. All states require the voter to have been a resident for a stated period, the time varying from six months to two years. Most states require voters to be citizens of the United States. A section of the middle western states stretching from the Canadian border to the gulf, originally permitted aliens who had not taken out their final citizenship papers to vote, but agitation for the abolition of this provision became general with the outbreak of the world war and, as a result, it has been practically done away with. Certain classes of persons are ex- cluded from the franchise, chief among them the insane, idiots, paupers and convicted criminals. Formerly New York excluded those convicted of betting on an election, Idaho and JMisrfssippi those proved to have committed bigamy, while Virginia disfranchised duellists. Some states still require the payment of a poll tax. There is an increasing number of those which provide for a literacy test. Connecticut was the first to require voters to be able to read and write, establishing the provision in 1855. The first of the southern states to attempt to re- 80 The Voter at the Polls duce its number of negro voters by a literacy test was Mississippi, which in 1890 set up the require- ment that a voter must be able to read the state constitution or understand it when read by an election officer. South Carolina made a similar ruling five years later, excepting, however, those who own at least $300 worth of property. Sev- eral other southern states exempted from the lit- eracy test those who were voters in 1867, when the negroes were still disfranchised, the descend- ants of those who were voters in 1867, and those who served in the army and na\y during the Civil War. Such exceptions, which operated in the favor of white voters who were illiterate, led to considerable controversy in other parts of the country and the provision relating to voters of 1867, termed the Grandfather clause, was in 1915 declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. Election Officials. — ^Election commissioners, or county and city clerks, are required to provide requisites for elections. It is their duty to see that the selected buildings are open and ready for polls, that the registration or enrollment books for the district, ballot boxes, printed bal- lots, pencils, pens, ink and other supplies are on hand. At each polling place there is a corps of election judges or inspectors, poll clerks, or The Voter at the Polls 81 counters, and ballot clerks. Most of these offi- cials secure their appointment through the in- fluence of district political party leaders and as such may naturally be expected to favor the for- tunes of the particular party through which they have secured their appointment. In addition each party is entitled to one or more watchers, or challengers, to protect their party's interests. There is also a policeman to see that electioneer- ing is not carried on within a certain number of feet of the polling place, that order is maintained, and that the ordinary rules of election procedure are obeyed. Election officials are paid for their work by the government, since they are responsible for the actual conduct of elections. Party watchers or challengers are supposed to be volunteers. Their work is to prevent dishonesty, to watch for fraud and to challenge 'when they detect it, to see that the attention of the precinct judges is called to any such matter, and in case of an unsatisfactory decision from them, to carry the matter to the election commissioners or the courts. The citizen who is interested primarily in honest elections may not find it easy to obtain a watcher's certifi- cate from one of the dominant parties, but the minority parties, certain good citizenship organi- zations and those who are interested in pending 82 The Voter at the Polls referenda welcome such assistance and are glad to grant certificates even though the citizen may not be directly allied with them. Importance of Election Watchers. — The party watcher has a task the importance of which cannot be too much stressed. There could never be a corrupt election if honest citizens went as watchers to every polling place and stayed there the entire day. If the polls open at six o'clock it is no good to arrive at a quarter after six. Enough ballots may be put into the box by that time to overturn the entire election. If there is no one to substitute for him, the watcher should not leave the polls for luncheon or dinner. In his absence enough ballots may be destroyed to de- termine the outcome. If the count proceeds all night, and the watcher leaves one minute before it is concluded, the figures entered in ink, the boxes sealed and given into the custody of the po- lice guard, he might as well have stayed away en- tirely. Due partly to the violence which has attended elections in the past and the unpleasant character of many of the polling places, citizens of the so- called 'better class' have been reluctant to under- take the work of election officials and watchers. The last few years have witnessed an improve- ment both in the character of the polls and the or- The Voter at the Polls 83 der which is maintained there; and the granting of suffrage to women has made necessary still further reforms. As a result, today there is less excuse for shirking this duty and every reason for all good citizens to feel that it is their particu- lar responsibility. Registration. — The first difficulty in insuring an honest election comes with the registration of the voters. In the United States the custom has been to require personal registration, that is, that every voter shall come on stated days before the election officials, sign his name, give his address and age, and answer a few other simple questions which will help to identify him when he comes later to cast his vote and to prevent a dishonest person from claiming his registration and voting in his stead. Some states have elaborated upon these requirements and demand that a personal description of the registrant be entered on the books, giving the color of hair and eyes, heighth and any other personal characteristics which would make identification more certain. Especially in the country districts where per- sonal registration makes a long journey neces- sary there is an increasing disposition to admit registration by proxy or by mail. Latterly some states have passed laws permitting traveling men or others necessarily absent from home, or those 84 The Voter at the Polls who are ill, to send their registration by mail. This system has been objected to on the ground that lack of personal identification by watchers gives greater opportunity for dishonest election officials to "pad the rolls" with names of persons who have not registered and will not vote, but whose names are thus at the disposal of false vot- ers on election day. Some states require registration to be renewed every year or two by the voters. Others follow the practice of "once on always on." In states where this permanent registration exists, names of men who have moved away or who are deceased may be carried for years on the books in order that substitutes may be voted in their place on election day. In close elections political party leaders have even been known to make use of this method by copying into the registration books lists of names from telephone or city directories. There is a constant protest against undue in- convenience to the voters concerning registration. It is difficult, however, to make registration easy for the voters and at the same time to safeguard it properly as a means of tabulating honest vot- ing lists. CHAPTER III TYPES OF ELECTION FRAUD Fraud. — If the representatives of the two par- ties on the election boards are in collusion no law can insure honest elections. This is the real dif- ficulty underlying all election reform. A woman watcher tells of seeing not only the poll clerks, but the judges and watchers of both parties in one precinct working in unison for the election of five of the ten candidates for city commission- ers. Although election literature is prohibited in all polling places, the walls of this particular one were covered with posters bearing the five chosen names. A man sat in the center of the polling place all day wearing on his coat a ribbon with the names of these five candidates and this woman watcher actually saw him give money to voters as they entered. While the openness with which this particular fraud was carried on may be un- usual, there is clear evidence of trickery in nearly every election. The time has come for American voters to open their eyes to the ways by which their 85 86 The Voter at the Polls will is constantly nullified and control over them is maintained by political leaders. The frauds which are practised may be listed under three heads, according as they are accomplished through force, bribery, or trickery. Frauds by Force. — It has already been said that frauds by force are less prevalent today than they have been in the past. And yet within the last few years *thugs' from outside the state were imported to swing a Pennsylvania election. They took possession of the polls, voted in place of the legally qualified voters, and by violence in- timidated all who tried to stop them. Owners of large estates, employers of great numbers of men and political leaders in control of patronage still march up to the polls the men under them to vote according to their instructions. Fraud by Bribery.— The buying and selling of votes is the most prevalent and widely known known method of defeating the will of the ma- jority. There are precincts where money is openly paid to the voters by political leaders. Recently in Chicago a ballot when unfolded by the election counters revealed a five-dollar bill which had been handed to the voter and which he had evidently forgotten to remove. In some sec- tions it is the habit for political leaders working at the polls to distribute checks of various kinds; The Voter at the Polls 87 or in the south, chestnuts, which are redeemed by the party cashier for two or five or ten dollars — whatever rate has been agreed upon as the price to be paid each voter in that section. Political leaders can tell almost to a dollar the sum needed to buy enough votes to swing the election of a road commissioner, or a mayor, or whatever the official may be. In one small city this system was recently imperiled by a bitter controversy between the two dominant parties, in which the price of votes was run up so high that the leaders finally came together and made an agreement to buy no more votes. Whereupon the men who had been in the habit of selling their votes nominated a ticket of their own and elected it. The political leaders immediately restored the old system. Fraud by Trickery.— There are many tricks by which political leaders juggle elections. One of the most common is repeating. Men are em- ployed to vote as many times as they can in each precinct. For this purpose the registration lists are padded by the officials with names which will not be claimed by actual voters. Lists of these fictitious names are given to the repeaters, who may then vote in place of a man who has moved away, or died, or gone on a visit to Maine or Cali- fornia. Sometimes the repeater may claim the name of a man who intends to vote later in the 88 The Voter at the Polls day. In one such case the election officials threat- ened to throw the rightful voter out of the polls if he did not go away quietly and when he continued to assert his right to vote, they did actually put him out into the street. In a recent investigation in Kansas City one man confessed to having voted thirty-seven times at one election and to knowing forty other men who voted as many times. Colonizing is another fraud. Some states re- quire registration many months preceding elec- tions. Others accept a very brief registration, or permit men who move from one district to an- other to change their registration up to a few days preceding election. Such states open the way to bringing in men from outside, who register, vote in large numbers and are gone within a few days. It has even been established that in states close to the Canadian border where the registration days have been close to election, party leaders have brought over 'colonies' of Canadians to vote. The giving of misinformation is a very easy way to trick voters. A citizen may be told that he cannot vote at a certain precinct and unless he protests his rights, he may be induced to go away and not vote at all, thus leaving his regis- tration to T)e used by some one else. Voters are frequently advised that they are not permitted to The Voter at the Polls 89 split the ticket, or are warned that if they do attempt it they will make such mistakes that their ballot will certainly be thrown out. Watchers have been put out of polling places for advising voters that it was permissable to split party tick- ets, thus leaving the field to those who were ad- vising that it was prohibited. One woman in Pennsylvania has told how an election official to whom she appealed for information so that she might vote against one party, told her to "scratch it by making a cross under its emblem." The woman did as she was told, thereby casting a straight vote for the party she wished to defeat. Some states permit illiterate voters to receive aid in casting their votes from one representative of each of the two dominant parties. Where these representatives are in collusion, the will of the voter may be frustrated, for they have been known to mark the ballot in an entirely opposite way from the one indicated by the voter. So it is that ballots may be perverted before they are cast. But there are also ways of cheat- ing honest, informed citizens who think that once their ballots are properly deposited in the box they can go home sure that their duty is well performed. Ballots have been stolen from boxes. In a recent New York City election one large bundle of voted ballots properly marked 90 The Voter at the Polls with the precinct in which they were east was picked up from a nearby gutter. A Pennsyl- vania woman watcher has reported the use of such small boxes that ballots overflowed to the floor, were opened and destroyed. And a woman watcher in another state who overheard plans laid to destroy a certain number of ballots dur- ing the count literally sat upon them until an- other woman could get help to protect them. Dishonest officials may easily cheat while the ballots are being handled in the count. It is easy to make a little tear in a ballot as it is being opened, any such torn ballots being thrown out. *Shortpencilling' is resorted to by holding in the clenched fist a very short pencil with the lead downward. By this means marks may be made which deface a ballot and result in its being thrown out. Or a straight ticket may be split in this wise. In some states the law permits a voter to make a check under the emblem of his party and then if he desires to mark the names of two or three candidates on the opposing ticket, his ballot is counted as being cast for all the candi- dates under the emblem he has marked except those for whom he has voted on the opposing ticket. In such states the dishonest counter who 'shortpencils,' makes checks on ballots and thus increases the votes for certain candidates in whom he is particularly interested. CHAPTER IV SOME SUGGESTED REMEDIES Compulsory Voting. — A number of foreign countries are now having their registration lists of all those eligible to vote made up by the gov- ernment itself, thus doing away with the inde- pendent registration by voters themselves. Along with this plan usually proceeds compul- sory voting. That means that all those whose names are on the lists are required to vote, unless they can prove unavoidable absence or illness. In this country where compulsory voting has been agitated, it has been opposed as an infringement of personal liberty and it has been said that those who are too indifferent to vote would not have any opinion on public affairs worth recording. On the other hand those with experience with the system urge that it does secure the votes of many good citizens who have not previously been awake to their duty to the state. Changes in the Form of the Ballot. — The abolition of the party emblem on ballots is urged 91 92 The Voter at the Polls as a means of requiring voters to exercise more intelligence and thought in picking out candi- dates. It is also argued that so long as voters by making a single mark can cast a ballot for their straight party ticket, many will do this to save themselves trouble, whereas if they are required to mark each name separately they will be more likely to consider the merits of candidates on op- posing tickets. The length of the average ballot also conspires to the casting of a straight vote by the citizen who has not time enough alloted to him to mark each name separately. The remedy suggested for this is the short ballot already in use in some states. On the short ballot there appear only the names of the more important candidates, so that this change operates not only to save time for the voter but to center upon the leading officials re- sponsibility for the appointment of minor officials now usually chosen by election. Proportional Representation. — :To make ef- fective the will of the majority proportional rep- resentation is now used in most European coun- tries and in some parts of the United States. Under our present scheme of elections one of sev- eral candidates who himself receives less than a majority of all the votes cast at the election may be declared the victor. Also the control of po- The Voter at the Polls 93 litical leaders is a strong factor in the choice of nominees in the primaries and candidates at the elections. Proportional Representation is said to insm*e both the triumph of the candidates with an actual majority of votes and to make more likely the election of independents. There are various modifications of proportional representa- tion in use, all of which, however, depend upon the preferential ballot. On the preferential bal- lot the voter records not only his first, but his sec- ond, or third choice, in fact as many choices as he likes. When the ballots are counted, if the can- didate named as first choice has no chance of win- ning a majority, the vote is transferred to the sec- ond choice. If the candidate named as second choice has no chance of winning, the vote is trans- ferred to third choice and so on. The Voting Machine.— Two remedies are advanced to do awa}^ with trickery in counting. One is the use of voting machines which are not so easy of manipulation by dishonest officials as are paper ballots, and which automatically regis- ter totals so that the returns are immediately known and there can be no withholding of returns from one district to falsify them according to the need disclosed by the results in other districts. The other remedy is the public counting of votes, that is the sending of the sealed ballot boxes to 94 The Voter at the Polls one central place where the counting may be watched by all interested citizens. Some Additional Changes. — There is some- thing certainly wrong with the electoral system when only fifteen per cent, of those entitled to vote go to the polls as was the case recently in one state. There are some very apparent ways of be- ginning the reform. So long as voters are penal- ized by being obliged to wait in line outside for an hour or two, sometimes in the pouring rain, and then to hold their noses against the smells within for another fifteen minutes before they can deposit their ballots, there is bound to be some disinclination to vote. Better polling places, the use of churches and schools instead of stables and shops, would remedy that. More vital, of course, are the more or less hid- den frauds whose well known practise has dis- couraged individual voters and made them feel that their efforts were worthless. Legal means have been suggested to better these conditions. But the only really efficacious way of dealing with the situation is for honest citizens who desire hon- est elections to go to the polls* as election officials and watchers. One such person to each precinct would quickly end the corruption of elections. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. J2, This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 29MAR'60ER REC'D LD MAR 23 1980 2«ov'60RT J'-T 2 1 UQ \j» RAf^ yjSg. -WiX^ RECP t-P jun^ifig^^ 3)an'6?fiP i '' ' AK^CU L.D JANy 1963 ^^y^ p^ L,- V~> 'D L^ FEB ?.fi 196^ LD 21A-50r«-4,'59 (A1724sl0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. ^BHHfUi^l^ REC'D LD DEC 2 6 '63 -3 PM OCT 20 ^^6^^^ t^- ■m^ ji. PN. n» Tta^t?^ f^ttC o ^P llB!IT6r5^ LD 21A-40m-ll,'63 (E1602elO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley