OCR Text |
Show 01 ELECTION BOARD j IS GAINING Ffil West Virginia Legislature Adopts Plan as Used in Kansas. NEW YORK, March 4. Indications that one of the greatest obstacles to the prompt announcement of election results, such as handicapped the newspapers in the last presidential election, may be removed re-moved before another presidential year are reflected in the. action of the West Virginia legislature, following the example exam-ple set by Kansas, in the creation of what is called "a double election board." The measure is hailed by West Virginia newspapers as one that will be appreciated appre-ciated by the general public to a greater l extent than is realized by those not fa-; fa-; miliar with the present encumbrances which surround ballot counting. They de- v-mii mat sut'LCOS Ul L11K CAjJcnillcllL in Kansas last fall should attract attention atten-tion in olher states as a possible relief from such uncertainty as the whole country coun-try labored under for several days after the last election. Kansas, considering its difference in time as compared with the eastern slates, was the first of all states to begin to return figures on its election last No- enioer . i nis was a surprise generally gener-ally to other states until it was discovered discov-ered that the secret of Kansas promptness prompt-ness was a system known as the double election board. This system does not in any sense revolutionize revo-lutionize present methods of voting, but simply makes it possible that the ballots may be counted almost simultaneously with the casting of them, with the result that the vote is known immediately upon the closing of the polls. The Kansas law provides that at : all general elections the national and state tickets shall be printed upon one ballot, and the district, county and township tickets shall be printed upon another ballot, bal-lot, and that at each voting precinct five separate ballot boxes shall be provided, two boxes in duplicate for the national and state ballots, and that there shall be two boards of election officers, one to be known as the receiving board to receive ballots and guard their proper placement in the boxes and the other to be a counting count-ing board. A few hours after the opening of the polls the national and stale ballot boxes are removed from their designated places, and duplicate boxes placed in their stead, while the counting board retires under proper safeguards, empties the first set of boxes and counts the ballots. After another interval the boxes are exchanged again and the counting proceeded with in this manner of simple relay throughout the day. The old method, which still obtains in all the states except Kansas and West Virginia, requires the casting of the ballot bal-lot before any counting is done, and this involves in some places from six to forty-eight forty-eight hours, delaying a still greater time the compilation of a state or nalional vote. The act of the West Virginia legislature legisla-ture in following the Kansas example is called the Wier bill, after James W. AVier, a. newspaper man who is a member of the West Virginia legislature and who deemed that some of the clerical and mechanical handicaps of election reporting belonged to the days when folks depended upon the stagecoach for their news, instead of the present era of the telephone and wireless wire-less telegraph, in West Virginia, for example, ex-ample, at the last election it was a week before i t wa s know n posi ti rely how t he state had gone, and it was six Weeks before be-fore the exact figures were compiled and published. What little opposition was met with in West Virginia in suggesting adoption of the Kansas method was to the effect that tho double election board involved ad-riitional ad-riitional expense, but in the argument of tho author of the bill it is as inexpensive I to work two sets of men one day as it is i to work one set of men for two days. Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and several of the middle and western states have for many years been particularly slow In completing their returns, and it is such conditions that have handicapped the Associated Press in announcing the definite results of presidential elections on the night of election day. The seriousness se-riousness of such delays as were encountered encoun-tered last November, when various newspapers news-papers announced the residt before it was known, has impressed itself upon Governor Cox of Ohio. In an address before be-fore the members of the Associated Ohio Dailies at Columbus recently the governor gover-nor suggested the adoption of a law similar simi-lar to that of Kansas so that the general result might be known early in the evening even-ing of election day, instead of, as he said, "about Christmas time." In the view of election experts, the uniform uni-form adoption of the double board system sys-tem In all the states would obviate such doubt of the presidential vote as obtained ob-tained at tiie last election. |