246 



ELECTIONS, LAWS, CUSTOMS, AND THEORIES OF. 



anew the useless votes given them, and substi- 

 tute a third person in their place. Proxy 

 voting permits every voter to give his vote 

 or proxy to any person he pleases. Proxy 

 voting, it is claimed, will result in each elect- 

 or's exercising the right of franchise. List 

 voting, in some respects, resembles preferential 

 voting. It was first recommended by M. 

 Naville, of Geneva, Switzerland. It supposes 

 lists of candidates, each containing a number 

 of names equal to the number of representa- 

 tives to be chosen, ranged in the order of 

 preference, to be deposited with the authorities 

 a certain time before election, and numbered. 

 Each elector gives his vote for a particular 

 list. The whole number of votes for that list 

 is divided by the electoral quotient, and the 

 result gives the number of candidates chosen 

 on that list. For example, if there be 15 

 representatives to be elected, 15,000 voters, 

 and 5 lists of candidates : list A. receiving 

 5,000 votes, secures 5 representatives ; list B, 

 receiving 4,000 votes, secures 4 representa- 

 tives ; and so on. 



Registration. Registration laws require the 

 electors who desire to vote to register their 

 names, addresses, and, in some cases, other 

 personal information, in books or lists pro- 

 vided for the purpose, several days before vot- 

 ing. The object is to afford an opportunity to 

 investigate the right of each person to vote. 

 In some States, special constitutional provision 

 is made for the enactment of registration laws ; 

 such States as Alabama, Colorado, Florida, 

 Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mary- 

 land, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, 

 New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennes- 

 see, Virginia, and West Virginia. In Arkan- 

 sas, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia 

 some exceptions are made to the application of 

 the registry laws, and in Texas registration 

 laws are forbidden. 



Nominations. Candidates must be nominated 

 before they can be voted for, and while in the- 

 ory the right to nominate is open to every citi- 

 zen, yet in practice the nominations are made 

 by party organizations. The voters of each 

 party and each district meet on an appointed 

 evening, and ballot either for the candidate 

 whom they desire to nominate, or for repre- 

 sentatives to some nominating convention. 

 Such meetings are known as primary elections, 

 and while the same general procedure is fol- 

 lowed all over the country, there are minor 

 details in which one primary election differs 

 from another. In every election district, how- 

 ever, there are men who, for one reason or an- 

 other, have become leaders : These leaders hold, 

 prior to the primary election, a caucus, at which 

 they decide who shall or shall not be the can- 

 didate nominated, and their influence with the 

 majority of the attendants at the primary is 

 usually sufficient to procure such nomination. 

 In order that the people at large may be given 

 a better opportunity to nominate candidates, it 



has been proposed to adopt the Australian sys- 

 tem of nomination, which, briefly, is as fol- 

 lows: A candidate is nominated in writing 

 (called a "nomination paper"), which must be 

 subscribed by a certain number of electors. 

 During a certain time, a designated public offi- 

 cial furnishes the blank forms of nomination 

 to any voter, and at a certain date all nomina- 

 tion papers that are to be of force must be filed 

 with a designated public official. Only those 

 persons whose names are on a nomination pa- 

 per duly tiled and signed by the necessary 

 number of electors can be voted for. This 

 method recommends itself by its extreme sim- 

 plicity and the thorough opportunity afforded 

 the people for nomination. The form of the 

 Australian nomination paper is as follows: 



We, the undersigned, A. J?., of , in the of 



andC. />.. of , in the of 



being electors for the of do hereby nomi- 

 nate the following person as a proper person to serve as mem- 

 ber for the said in 1'arliament : 



(Signed) A. B. 



O. D. 



We, the undersigned, being registered electors of the 



do hereby assent to the nomination of the above-mentioned 

 John Brown as a proper person to serve as member for the 



said In Parliament. 



(Signed) 



Procedure of Elections. The elections in the 

 different States are conducted under the same 

 general procedure. The polling - places are 

 opened at a designated hour, one or more in- 

 spectors are present, each candidate or party 

 has some one present to distribute ballots, the 

 voter drops them into the box in the presence 

 of the inspectors (if a registration system is in 

 force, he first gives his name, and it is verified 

 by the list). The polls close at a certain hour, 

 after which the votes are counted. This sys- 

 tem is so well known, and may be so easily 

 seen in practice, that no detailed description 

 is necessary here. It has been found to offer 

 numerous opportunities for bribery and cor- 

 ruption of all kinds. Recently, there has 

 sprung up a movement looking to the adoption 

 in the United States of the election procedure 

 now in vogue in Great Britain, known as the 

 Australian system. Briefly, this system is as 

 follows : The polls being open, the voter en- 

 ters, and gives his name. His right to vote 



