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Show w 1 BAD BILX, What we believe is a bad reforib in our election laws is contained In a bill by Mr. Sharp of Salt Lake. It provides for an election board of seven sev-en in precincts which cast over 100 votes in the last general election, in place of three, as the law provides ai present. It also provides that as soon as' ten ballots have been cast they sihall be counted; it also provides that no information shall be given out until after the polls close. The bill ha9 passed the houe of representatives and Is now before ! the Semite. While it is true that some real reform is 'needed in our election machinery, we don't need to let down the bars entirely. The danger in this law, in addition to the added expense is the escape of information. For years we have studied and guarded the ecrecy of the ballot the individual indi-vidual ballot. Under the old ballot law It was possible to estimate verv, accurately now the ballot was standing stand-ing on any subject at any time of the day, and if your side or my side wa behind, we would go out and rustle, I buy enough votes, if possible, to change the result in our precinct. All that has been changed, but j think how important it will be to the grafter politician to be able to know for a certainty how the ballot stands at 4 or 5 o'clock on election day. Just imagine what price he would pay or what chances he would taKo for the required information. Just imagine the hurrywig and Bcurrylng there would be for a few needed votes to put over some important measure or candidates. We are keeping keep-ing the individual ballot secret, let us keep the precinct ballot secret-There secret-There is no doubt that there is a just call for relief for the over-worked election officials. There are three noted not-ed ways whereby this relief can be granted without danger above mentioned. men-tioned. First Comply with, the present law, which says precincts shall contain con-tain 2 00 voters or as near that number num-ber as practicable. Second In large precincts, besides be-sides the usual election board or three members, have two extra clerks ! come on duty at about six o'clock for j the purpose of relieving the regular board, while it goes out and 'gets something to eat and then promptly at the close of the polls the counting could begin with all five members at work. Third More care should be used in appointing members of the board who are more or less acquainted with clerical work. Any one of these remedies would help , some and all three of them would help a whole lot. The first and the third remedies need no additional addition-al laws and can be used at. any time the boards of county commissioner see fit to tuke advantage of them. Let's use the laws we already have with an honesty of purpose before we try any new ones. . , |