CHAPTER VII
SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS
The purpose of this chapter is to explain who have the right to vote, how the voters nominate public officials, and how elections are held.
Suffrage
How the Voters Control the Government.—A democratic government is one in which the people, acting directly or through their representatives, control the course of public affairs. This control may be exercised, as has been pointed out, in either one of two ways. It may be exercised directly, that is, by the use of the initiative and referendum. The proposal for a law comes from a designated number of voters, and the adoption or rejection of the proposal is decided by a majority of the voters at the polls.
It is easy to see, however, that the people cannot perform the entire work of government in this direct way. There are too many laws to be made, too many details of administration to be handled, and too many disputes to be adjusted. So most of the work of government is carried on by persons who are chosen by the voters for this purpose or who are appointed to office by the representatives of the people. Elective officials, as a rule, have authority to determine matters of general policy in nation, state, or municipality, while appointive officials, for the most part, carry out the policy thus determined upon.
GOVERNMENT. By Elihu Vedder
From a Copley Print, copyright by Curtis & Cameron, Boston. Reproduced by permission.
From a mural decoration in the Library of Congress.
Mr. Vedder portrays Government as a mature woman in the fullness of her strength. She is seated upon a bench of hewn marble, which is supported by the figures of two lions—all emblematic of strength and power. Behind is an oak tree, which typifies slow, deep-rooted growth. In symbolic pictures the ballot box is usually represented as an urn. Here the marble bench rests upon urn-shaped vases. In the lions’ mouths are mooring-rings to remind us that the ship of state must not drift aimlessly but should be moored to strength.
In her left hand Government grasps a golden sceptre (the Golden Rule) to signify that all her actions are based upon respect for the rights of others; her right hand holds a tablet upon which is graven a notable epigram from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. On either side of Government are two genii or mythical figures. One holds a bridle which typifies restraint, discipline, and order—the bulwark of effective government. The other supports an unsheathed sword, emblematic of defence and justice.
In this picture, therefore, the author prefigures the outstanding marks of a successful free government—strength; fairness, democracy, restraint, security, and justice.
The Citizen and the Voter.—Government by the people does not, of course, mean government by all the people. |Not all citizens are voters.|In every country there are many persons who are not competent to exercise a share in the government. Very young persons, for example, do not have maturity of judgment, which a share in government requires. Insane persons, prisoners in jails, aliens, and others are also, for obvious reasons, usually debarred from the privilege of voting. It is not to be assumed that everyone who is a citizen is also a voter. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to American jurisdiction are citizens no matter what their ages or mental capacity may be, but not all are voters. The voters are those upon whom the privilege of voting has been conferred by law. In the United States they comprise a large proportion of the adults but they do not form a majority of the entire population. Out of a national population of about one hundred and five millions the voters of the United States number about thirty-five millions. This number is quite large enough to ensure an adequately representative government.
Development of the Suffrage.—Voting is a privilege and duty rather than a right. In the earlier states of American history the privilege of voting was restricted to property-owners and taxpayers. This condition of affairs, moreover, continued for a considerable period after the Revolutionary War. One by one, however, the various states began to abolish their restrictions and by the middle of the nineteenth century the principle of manhood suffrage had become firmly established so far as the white population was concerned. The struggle for the extension of the suffrage to men who did not own property was a prolonged and bitter contest in which the opponents of manhood suffrage vainly argued that the extension would put all political leadership into the hands of noisy agitators and would end in the ruin of orderly government. But manhood suffrage ultimately triumphed because the country came to the conclusion that the structure of democratic government could be made more secure by broadening the base upon which it rests.
Negro Suffrage.—In the Southern states prior to the Civil War colored men were excluded from voting at all elections. But with the emancipation of the slaves the question of guaranteeing the suffrage to colored men had to be faced. By the terms of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the national constitution no state is permitted to withhold voting rights from any man on account of his color; if it does so, the constitution provides that such state shall have its number of representatives in Congress reduced. As a matter of fact, however, there has always been a very strong sentiment among the white population of the Southern states in opposition to political equality on the part of the colored element, and this has prevented the enforcement of the guarantees contained in the constitution.
By various devices the Southern states have for the most part excluded negroes from suffrage. One of these is the requirement that all voters shall be able to read and write. If this provision were impartially applied to the white and the colored population alike; if all illiterate persons irrespective of color were excluded, this action would be entirely justified. But the aim of the South is to eliminate the negro as a voter whether he is illiterate or not.[34] The attitude of the white population in the South is not difficult to understand. In the days immediately following the Civil War the colored men were given the ballot in all the Southern states, and the results were disastrous. Unfit men were elected to office, public money was spent wastefully, and government was badly conducted in all these states under the domination of the colored voters. As a result the white population took the control once more into its own hands and has kept it there. But this can scarcely be regarded as a final solution of the problem. No political problem can be solved in this country in defiance of the constitution. Many Southerners realize this and are endeavoring to find some solution which will be for the best interests of the negro while protecting the white man’s political supremacy. The negro question is particularly the Southerner’s problem; he knows the colored race as no Northerner can; and if he cannot settle it justly and wisely, no man can.
The Nineteenth Amendment.—It is now more than fifty years since women first began to claim, in this country, the right to equal political privileges with men. Those who supported this claim argued that women were quite competent to assume an active share in government and that in some branches of public administration (such as the management of schools and the enforcement of the laws regulating child labor) women have an even greater interest than men. Women were required to pay taxes and it was urged that on this account they were entitled to representation. On the other hand the extension of the suffrage to women was opposed on the ground that it would tend to weaken the interest of women in the home, thus impairing the strength of the family as a social unit, and also that women would not use the ballot wisely. They would be influenced by their sympathies and emotions rather than by their judgment, it was predicted, and would bring an element of instability into public policy. Another objection commonly raised was that with twice as many voters the cost of holding elections would be doubled. But despite these objections the movement for woman suffrage made gradual headway in one state after another and finally, in 1920, it was made compulsory upon the entire country by the provisions of the Nineteenth Amendment.[35]
Present Qualifications for Voting.—Each state decides who shall not vote. Each state has entire freedom to do as it thinks best in this matter subject only to the provisions of the national constitution, which stipulate that the privilege of voting shall not be denied to any citizen by reason of sex, or because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. There is no reason, therefore, why the qualifications for voting should be the same in all parts of the country, and as a matter of fact they differ a little from state to state. At present the restrictions relate mainly to age, citizenship, and residence, but sometimes also to literacy and taxpaying. In every state the privilege of voting is restricted to persons who are twenty-one years of age or over. As for the residence requirement it varies considerably in different states, running usually from six months to a year. It is imposed in order to make sure that those who vote in any community shall be somewhat acquainted with its affairs. In most of the states none but citizens are permitted to vote, but in two or three states the privilege is extended to those aliens who have declared their intention of becoming citizens.
Educational Tests for Voters.—Educational qualifications for voting, in one form or another, exist in nearly one-third of the states.[36] In some the requirement is that anyone who desires to be enrolled as a voter shall be able to write his name and also to read aloud any clause taken at random from the state constitution. Exemptions from this test are always granted to persons who by mere reason of physical disability are unable to read or write.
Several of the Southern states have provided additional exemptions which result in excusing from the test all white persons who are unable to read and write while strictly applying the requirement to all colored applicants. |How educational tests are applied.| Various methods are employed to this end. In one case the provision is that no one may be registered as a voter unless he can read any clause in the state constitution or “give a reasonable interpretation thereof”. The white officials in charge of the registration then decide, in their own discretion, whether the interpretation is reasonable or not. In some other states the attempt has been made by what is commonly known as the “grandfather clause” to excuse from the literacy test all persons who had the right to vote before 1867, and all descendants of such persons. As there were no colored voters in any of the Southern states prior to this date the “grandfather clause” virtually establishes a racial discrimination which the Supreme Court, a few years ago, declared to be unconstitutional.
Is an Educational Test Desirable?—In the majority of the states men and women are permitted to vote even though unable to read or write. The question is often asked whether this practice is wise. Would it be better to insist on an elementary educational qualification everywhere, or is it desirable that in a democracy no distinction be made between those who can read and those who cannot?
On the one hand it is argued that men and women who have never had the advantages of a grammar school education may nevertheless be good, patriotic citizens, and indeed may be better informed upon questions of government and politics than some who have had far greater educational advantages. People are not required to read and write before they are permitted to own property or compelled to pay taxes. Men who could neither read nor write were drafted to serve in the army during the war. If, then, we compel illiterate persons to perform the duties of citizenship, ought we not to grant its privileges to them as well? But there is something to be said on the other side of this question. Bear in mind that we provide free public elementary education for everyone in the United States. The privilege of learning to read and write is not the privilege of a single class; it is within the reach of everyone. We no longer allow aliens to enter the United States unless they can read and write, nor can any illiterate person become naturalized. Under these circumstances is it unreasonable to require an elementary educational test for voting? It may be true that persons who are unable to read are able to mark a certain type of ballot without spoiling it, but they can hardly hope to exercise an intelligent choice as among individual candidates on the ballot; they are unable to use any ballot which does not arrange the names of candidates in straight party columns and they cannot vote upon referendum questions except by mere guess-work. If we are regularly going to submit questions to the voters at the polls for their decision, should not the voting lists be confined to those who are at least able to read the questions?
Tax-Paying Qualifications for Voting.—In a few states the male suffrage is restricted to persons who have been assessed for a poll tax. Massachusetts has such a provision and enforces it strictly. Some Southern states also impose this qualification, partly, no doubt, because it is effective in debarring large numbers of colored men who are remiss in paying their annual poll taxes. There is a difference, of course, between a taxpaying qualification and a property qualification. Many people pay taxes, income and poll taxes, for example, without owning any property. Nowhere in the United States is the ownership of property a requirement for voting at national elections.
These, then, are the general and special qualifications. It will be observed that since each state prescribes its own requirements, no two of them establish the same qualifications, or, if they do, it is merely by accident. It is not strictly true that every adult citizen of the United States has the privilege of voting; but it is approximately true. Those who are excluded by the residence, educational, or tax paying qualifications (apart from colored citizens in the Southern states) form a relatively small fraction of the total adult citizenship, probably less than ten per cent.[37]
How Voters are Registered.—In order to obtain a ballot on election day it is necessary that one’s name shall be on the voters’ list. This list is prepared by officials designated for this purpose in every community or district. These officials are commonly known as registrars of voters. Whoever desires to be enrolled must appear before these registrars and usually must make a sworn statement as to age, citizenship, residence, and other qualifications. If there is an educational test, it is applied by the registrars. The printed lists of enrolled voters are then posted for public inspection.[38] In some states a new voters’ list is compiled every year, and it thus becomes necessary for everyone to register annually. In others it is the practice to keep a voter’s name on the list so long as he continues to pay poll taxes.[39] But in any case the only way a voter can be sure of having his name on the list at every election is to give this matter his personal attention. In the eyes of the law voting is a privilege, not a right, and the voter is responsible for seeing that he obtains his privilege.
Nominations
Why Nominations are Essential.—The choice of elective public officials usually involves two steps—the nomination and the election. Nominations may be made, and they are sometimes made, by a caucus or by a convention of delegates. More often, however, they are made by the voters at a preliminary election or primary. But the question may fairly be asked: Why have nominations at all? Why not give the voters blank ballots and let them write in whatever names they please? Apart from the fact that many voters (in states which impose no educational test) would not be able to write, there is the objection that so many different persons would be voted for that no one would have anything like a majority. In order to ensure that those who are elected will represent the choice of a substantial body of the voters and if possible an actual majority, it is desirable that there be some way of eliminating all but the stronger candidates. That is why we provide for formal nominations.
History of Nominating Methods.—During the past hundred years or more we have tried a variety of nominating methods. First came the caucus, sometimes a gathering of legislators and sometimes of voters, brought together to select a candidate. |The convention method.| The caucus gave place, in time, to the convention, which is a body of delegates chosen by the voters of each locality. To this day the convention remains the mechanism by which nominations are in some cases made. But the convention method, for a variety of reasons, did not prove satisfactory and it has been replaced, throughout the greater portion of the United States, by the system of nomination at a primary election.
The Primary.—The primary, in our electoral system corresponds to the “qualifying trials” in athletic contests. Its purpose is to see that the race is confined to the swift. It eliminates those who have no chance to win. Those who desire to be candidates for any public office present their names on nomination papers, each of which must bear the signatures of so many qualified voters—say twenty-five or fifty. The names of the candidates are placed on a ballot, and a primary election is held some time before the regular election. But the details of primary elections differ somewhat from state to state. An open primary is one at which voters are not restricted to the ballot or column of their own party, but may exercise entire freedom of choice among all the names on the primary ballot. In some states there are party primaries or closed primaries. This means that none may vote at the primary except those who are members of a political party.[40] Each party may hold its primary on a different date, in which case it is called a separate primary; or both parties may hold their primaries together, in which case we call it a joint primary. At a joint primary there may be a separate ballot for the voters of each party or there may be a single ballot which contains the names of different party candidates in parallel columns. In some cities and towns another form, the non-partisan primary, is provided, in which case the ballot bears no party designations at all. The procedure at a primary election is like that of a regular election, with printed ballots, ballot boxes, and regular officials in charge of the polls.
Merits and Defects of the Primary.—As a method of making nominations the primary, whether closed, open, or non-partisan, has both merits and defects. It is better than the convention in that it places nominations directly in the hands of the voters, thus making it more difficult for party bosses to dictate who the candidates shall be. Conventions consisting of a relatively small number of delegates, many of them officeholders, can be manipulated by wire-pulling politicians. Nominations made by conventions have frequently been, for that reason, very unsatisfactory to the rank and file of the voters. The primary gives an opportunity to the man or woman who is popular with the voters although not popular with the politicians. It tends to break down some of the worst abuses of the party system.
On the other hand there are some practical objections to the primary as a method of making nominations and a vigorous fight is now being waged to abolish it. A primary means an additional election with all the attendant campaigning and expense. The total vote cast at a primary is often small; hence the candidate who gains the nomination may or may not be the real choice of his party.[41] The primary puts a burden upon those who seek to gain elective public office, for they must virtually fight and win two successive battles at the polls. To do this takes so much time that men and women who have business of their own to attend to are often deterred from becoming candidates. The field of political activity thus tends to become monopolized by professional politicians who have nothing else to do. The primary contests are so bitter at times that they create dissensions in the party ranks and weaken the party at the ensuing election. The use of the primary has not enabled us to get rid of political bosses; it has merely made them work a great deal harder to retain control.
In some states the political parties have adopted the practice of holding an “informal” convention some few weeks before the date of the primary. This convention, which is composed of unofficial delegates, makes recommendations as to the candidates who ought to be voted for by members of the party at the primary. Members of the party are free, of course, to do as they please at the primary, but the recommendations made by an “informal” convention, in view of the fact that they are largely the work of acknowledged party leaders, carry a good deal of weight.
One result of the primary system has been, therefore, to complicate our electoral machinery. If the practice of holding informal conventions becomes general, there will be four steps which a party will have to take in order to put its candidates in office, first the informal convention, then the primary, then the official convention which drafts the platform, and finally the election. Surely it should be possible to elect our public officials under some less complicated arrangement than this.[42]
Elections
How an Election is Held.—The date on which an election is held is fixed by law. National elections always take place on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.[43] State elections are usually, although not always, held on the same date. Local elections take place on such dates as the state laws or city charters provide. It is usually thought best that local elections shall not be held on the same day as the state or national elections because of a desire to keep national and state politics out of local affairs. When national, state, and local elections are held on the same day the tendency is for the voters to focus their whole attention on national and state issues, giving very little attention to the problems of their own communities. The names of candidates for the local offices are away down near the bottom of the ballot where they appear relatively unimportant. Separate elections involve additional expense, however, and increase the number of times a voter has to come to the polls.[44]
The voting is done at polling places, one or more of which are located in each precinct. The precinct is a small division of the county, town, or city; as a rule it does not contain more than four or five hundred voters. The polling place is in charge of officials, commonly known as poll-wardens or inspectors, who are appointed by the state or local authorities. They are assisted by clerks. The duty of these various officials is to open the poll, give ballots to persons who are registered and to no others, count the votes after the poll is closed, and report the results to the authorities who are in charge of the elections. They are responsible for the lawful and honest conduct of the polling. Each party is also allowed to have one or more “watchers” at the polling place and these watchers have the right to challenge any person whom they believe to be an impostor. When anyone is challenged he may take oath that he is entitled to vote, in which case he will be given a ballot; but such ballots are counted separately. When a voter receives a ballot, his name is checked off the voters’ list. Various stalls or booths are provided, into one of which the voter then goes and marks his ballot privately. Having finished marking it he folds the ballot and hands it to one of the polling officials who, in the presence of the voter, deposits it in the ballot box. Polls are kept open during designated hours, usually from six or seven o’clock in the morning until five or six o’clock in the afternoon.
The Ballot.—The history of the ballot in the United States is interesting. |1. Oral voting.| Originally all votes were given orally. The voter came to the polling place, stated his choice aloud and the poll officials wrote it down. The objection to this plan was that it precluded secrecy and left the voters open to intimidation. Then paper ballots came into use, each party providing ballots for its own members. |2. The party ballot.| Outside the polling place, at each election, stood a group of party workers each armed with a handful of ballots, which were distributed to the voters as they came. This method also was objectionable. |Objections to the party ballot.| It encouraged the voting of a “straight party ticket”, in other words it took for granted that everyone wished to vote for the entire slate of party candidates without exception. If the voter desired to do otherwise, it was necessary for him to scratch out the unacceptable names and write others in. Most voters would not go to this trouble. This method of balloting was not secret, because a voter could be watched from the time he received his ballot outside the polling place until he deposited it in the box. This was an encouragement to bribery and intimidation. It also facilitated fraud at elections since there was no limit upon the number of ballots printed by the parties and it was not difficult for dishonest voters or corrupt officials to slip extra ballots into the box. This abuse, known as “stuffing” the ballot box could only be prevented by having all the ballots officially printed. When a definite number of official ballots is given to each polling place every ballot must be accounted for.
In nearly all the states, therefore, an official ballot is now used. This is commonly known as the Australian ballot. Usually the names of all the candidates are printed in parallel columns, each party having a column of its own, with the name and insignia of the party at the top. Immediately below the insignia is a circle in which the voter, by marking a cross, may record his vote for every one of the candidates in the entire column. The voter who does this is said to vote a “straight ticket”. But if he desires to vote for some of the candidates in the column of one party and for some in the column of another party, he leaves the circle unmarked and places a cross after such individual names as he may choose. This is called voting a “split ticket”. In some states there are no party columns; the names of the candidates are printed on the ballot in alphabetical order, each name followed by a party designation. In a few large cities, such as Boston and Cleveland, the party designation is omitted. Here the voter must pick and choose individually. The party-column arrangement encourages the voting of straight tickets; the alphabetical plan does not.[45]
The Short Ballot.—Throughout the United States the number of elective offices steadily increased during the nineteenth century. The result was that ballots gradually became longer until in some cases the voters found themselves confronted with sheets of paper containing a hundred names or even more. It proved exceedingly difficult to use proper discrimination among so many names and hence there arose an agitation for simplifying the ballot by reducing the number of positions to be filled by election. In a democratic government all officials who have authority to decide questions of general policy—the President, senators, representatives, governors, assemblymen, mayors, councilors, and the like—ought to be chosen by popular vote. But there are many other officials, such as state auditors, county clerks, and superintendents of schools, whose duties are chiefly administrative. These officials carry out a policy which is laid down for them by law, and it is contended that they should not be elected but appointed. If all such officials were made appointive, the size of the ballot would be considerably reduced, and the voters could concentrate their attention upon a smaller number of names.
A ballot is not an effective instrument of popular government unless it is simple enough for the average voter to use intelligently. When a ballot is so long, so complicated, and so unwieldy that the voter is tempted by sheer exhaustion into voting a straight party ticket, then the party leaders, and not the people, are really choosing the officers of government. The movement for a “short ballot” aims to make government more truly democratic, not less so.
The Preferential Ballot.—Another defect of the ordinary ballot is that it allows the voter to indicate only a single choice for each office. If there are five candidates for the office of mayor, let us say, the voter may mark his ballot for one of them only. He is not permitted to indicate who would be his second choice, or his third choice among the five. Whichever candidate gets the largest number of first choices among the voters is the winner, although he may be the choice of a small minority. To prevent this likelihood of election by a minority when there are several candidates in the field for a single office a system of “preferential voting” is sometimes used.
Where the preferential ballot is in use, as it is in several American cities, the voters are asked to indicate, in columns provided for this purpose, not only their first but their second and third choices and even their further choices among the various candidates. The names of those candidates whom the voter does not want to support are left unmarked. When preferential ballots are counted, any candidate who has a clear majority of first choices is declared elected. But if no candidate obtains a majority of first choices, the second choices are added to the first choices and if the two totals combined give what would be a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate who received them is declared elected. In like manner the third choices are resorted to if necessary.[46] The candidate elected by the preferential system is practically always the choice of a majority among the voters, not the first choice of a majority always, but one whom a majority have indicated their willingness to support. The chief practical objection to the preferential ballot is that many voters do not take the trouble to mark their second and third choices.
Proportional Representation.[47]—Preferential voting should be distinguished from proportional representation, which is a plan of choosing legislative bodies in such a way that all considerable groups of voters will be represented in proportion to their own numbers. Whenever several representatives are elected on the same ballot it usually happens that one political party secures them all. So many voters adhere to the “straight ticket” that the entire party slate wins. The minority party, even though it may comprise nearly half the voters, in such cases obtains no representation at all. This, of course, does not give us a true system of representative government; hence various plans have been put forward for securing to “each considerable party or group of opinion” a representation corresponding to its numerical strength among the voters. The best known among these is the Hare Plan, which has been used in several foreign countries and, during recent years, in a few American cities.[48]
This system of proportional representation is somewhat complicated but may be concisely described as follows: First, the names of all candidates are printed alphabetically on the ballot and the voter indicates his choices by marking the figure 1 after the name of his first choice, the figure 2 after the name of his second choice, and so on. Then, when the polls are closed, the election officers compute the number of votes needed to elect a candidate and this is called “the quota”. This they do by dividing into the total number of votes cast the number of places to be filled, plus one, and then adding one to the quotient. For example, let us suppose that 10,000 votes have been cast and that there are seven candidates to be elected. Ten thousand divided by eight (seven plus one) is 1250 and any candidate who receives 1251 first-choice votes is declared elected. If such candidate, however, has more votes than enough to fill his quota, the surplus votes are distributed in accordance with the indicated second-choices among candidates whose quotas have not been filled. If enough candidates are not elected by this process, the candidate with the smallest number of first choices is then dropped and his votes are distributed in the same way. This process of elimination and distribution goes on until enough candidates have filled their quotas or until the successive eliminations have left no more than enough to fill the vacant positions. This plan is not a model of simplicity, of course, but it is not so difficult to understand as one might at first glance imagine, nor in its actual workings does it present any serious complications. What the voter has to do is simple enough. In so far as there are any difficulties they arise in connection with counting the ballots, not in marking them. The plan is workable and the attainment of proportional representation in all our legislative bodies would be a great gain.
Counting the Votes.—When the polls are closed the ballots are counted by the officials of the polling place in accordance with whatever plan is used. With ordinary ballots the counting does not take very long; if preferential ballots are used, or if a system of proportional representation is in vogue, the counting takes a good deal longer. When a candidate receives more than one-half of all the polled votes, he is declared to have a majority; when he merely obtains more votes than the next highest candidate he is said to have a plurality. In the United States, at nearly all elections, a plurality is sufficient. When the counting is finished the result is certified to the proper higher officials. A recount can usually be had at the demand of any candidate, and recounts often take place when the result is close.
Corrupt Practices at Elections.—All elections afford some opportunity for corrupt practices and various safeguards are provided against their occurrence. Personation is the offence of voting under a name which is not your own. Voters who have died since the lists were compiled, or who are absent, are sometimes impersonated by men who have no right to vote at all. Vigilance on the part of the election officers helps to prevent personation although the officials can hardly be expected to know everyone who comes to the polls. Repeating is the offence of voting twice at the same election. To do this a voter must first, by fraudulent means, become enrolled as a voter in two or more precincts or districts. Ballot-box stuffing is the practice of putting in the box ballots which have no right to be there. With the Australian ballot the practice is very infrequent. Ballot-switching is the placing of marks on the ballots, surreptitiously, while the ballots are being counted. A dishonest official, with a small piece of lead under his fingernail, has sometimes been able to spoil or to “switch” ballots by marking additional crosses on them during the process of counting. Intimidation is the offence of influencing a voter’s action by threats or wrongful pressure. Bribery, of course, is self-explanatory. All these practices involve moral turpitude and are forbidden under severe penalties. They have now become relatively uncommon at American elections.[49]
Absent Voting.—It frequently happens, in the nature of things, that many voters cannot conveniently be in their home districts on election day. Soldiers and sailors, commercial travelers, railway conductors, engineers and trainmen, fishermen, students in universities are obvious examples. It has been estimated that in Massachusetts the number of voters who are necessarily absent from their homes on election day averages about thirty thousand. Many others, in order to cast their ballots, are put to considerable expense and inconvenience. Now it has seemed desirable, in many of the states, to make some provision whereby those voters may cast their ballots without being actually at the polls on election day. The usual arrangement is that a voter who expects to be absent on election day must apply, some time before the election date, to a designated official for a ballot. This ballot is then marked by the voter and sealed in an envelope. The envelope is attested before a notary public and deposited with an election official who sees that it is counted when other ballots are counted. In some states the blank ballot is sent by mail to absent voters who request it, and after being marked the ballot is returned by mail before the election day. The chief objection to absent voting is that it gives an opportunity for fraud, but in practice this has not proved to be a serious objection.
Compulsory Voting.—Compulsory voting does not exist anywhere in the United States at the present time although it has been frequently proposed. Voting has been made compulsory, however, with legal penalties for failure to vote, in several foreign countries, notably in Belgium, in Spain, and in New Zealand. The usual procedure is to impose a fine upon every voter who, without good excuse, stays away from the polls on election day, or, for repeated absences, to strike his name off the voters’ list altogether.
Compulsory voting rests upon the argument that, in a democracy, the right to vote imposes a duty to vote. The citizen must serve on a jury in time of peace and in the army during war whether he likes these forms of public service or not. Why, then, should he be allowed to shirk his duty to vote, a duty which must be performed if democratic government is to survive? If one voter has the right to stay away from the polls, every other voter has the same right. And if all followed this policy, we could not maintain a “representative” form of government. But there is another side to the question. The voter who goes to the polls because he will be fined if he stays away will not cast his ballot with much discrimination, intelligence, or patriotism. |Are they valid?| Would the votes of such men be worth counting? Would they contribute anything to the cause of good government? Moreover, it has been demonstrated by foreign experience that while you can compel a voter to go to the polls and drop a ballot in the box you cannot compel him to mark his ballot properly, for he marks it in secret. In one of the Swiss cities some years ago it was found that the chief result of compulsory voting was to induce many hundreds of reluctant voters to drop blank ballots in the box. It can well be argued that voting is a duty, but it is a duty which ought to be performed from motives of patriotism and not from dread of the penalties. Most citizens do not require compulsion and it is questionable whether forcing others to vote would, in the long run, serve any useful purpose.
Voting by Machine.—In some cities of the United States the experiment of permitting the voter to record his choice by means of a voting machine has been tried with varying degrees of success. A voting machine is constructed upon much the same principles as a cash register. The keys bear the names of the various candidates and the voter merely steps behind a curtain where he presses one key after another just as he would mark crosses on a printed ballot. The mechanism is so arranged that a voter cannot press two keys which register for the same office. The voting machine plan has some distinct advantages in that it does away entirely with the trouble and expense of printing ballots; it eliminates spoiled ballots, it precludes all chance of tampering with the votes, and it ensures an accurate count. On the other hand the machines are expensive both to install and to maintain, particularly when several machines are needed for each polling place. Moreover, like all other complicated mechanisms, they get out of order, and when they do this on election day it makes a bad mess of things. It is doubtful whether they will ever supplant the printed ballot plan of voting.
Summary.—In order that any systems of popular voting shall be permanently successful it is necessary that the ballot shall be simple, intelligible, and secret. It must not be so long as to bewilder the voter of average intelligence, and it ought to give the voter a reasonable chance to “split” his ballot without running a serious risk of spoiling it. A short ballot is a far more effective instrument of democracy than a long ballot. Another essential is that the polling place shall be adequately safeguarded against fraudulent practices of any sort and that the counting of votes shall be conducted with absolute honesty. Any corrupt practice in connection with elections is a blow at the very heart of democracy. We hear a good deal, from time to time, about unfairness, fraud, and corruption at elections in the United States, particularly at elections in the larger cities. While these things occur now and then they are much less frequent than they used to be. American elections, taking them as a whole, are conducted with as much fairness and honesty as the elections which are held in any other country. Rival parties and candidates try hard to win; they seize every opportunity to gain political advantages over their opponents, and in so doing often travel very close to the line which separates right from wrong; but on the whole they try to keep within the letter of the election laws. Transgressions of the law may bring some temporary success but in the long run they do not pay, and the politicians know it.