VOTING MACHINE 



6117 



VULCAN 



form of calculating machine which records the 

 vote for each candidate, as well as for straight 

 tickets. Some voting machines have as many 

 as 480 separate counters. 



One of the best of these devices is about four 

 feet square and supported on a rod frame which 

 puts the top of the machine a little over HX 

 feet from the floor. The voter, as he stands in 

 front of the machine, pulls a lever pivoted near 

 top at the middle. This lever unlocks the 

 machine for voting and at the same time draws 

 behind the voter a curtain hung from a rail at 

 the top of the machine. The name of the can- 

 didates are arranged vertically by parties and 

 horizontally by offices. A separate key, shaped 

 like a pointer, pivots over the name of each 

 candidate; to vote it is merely necessary to 

 turn the key from its horizontal position so 

 that it points directly downward to the candi- 

 date's name. At the left of each party column 

 is a party lever, by which all the keys in the 

 party column may be set for voting. The 

 operation of this party lever rings a bell, which 

 .-hows that the vote is ready to be registered. 

 The lover which locks and unlocks the machine 

 must then be reversed, and this movement 

 counts the vote, resets the machine for the 

 next man and draws back the curtain behind 

 the voter. 



Any of the pointers on the machine can be 

 reversed and other pointers set before the lever 

 is operated to count the vote. Various devices 

 are added, so the voter cannot vote for more 

 candidates than are to be elected. Ingenious 

 devices are in use on different machines to pre- 

 vent a voter from voting more than once while 

 he is behind the curtain, the aid of an election 

 official usually being required to set the ma- 

 chine after a vote has been cast. 



The voting machine in its simplest form was 

 first used in England as early as 1870, by which 

 a ball fell into one of several compartments. 

 ice, however, was used only when one 

 office was to be filled. The more elaborate 

 American machines were first used in an elec- 

 tion at Lockport, New York, in 1892. Since 

 D many of the states have passed laws per- 

 mit firm thru use at the option of the mm 

 I- iht y or other unit of local government. The 

 advantages claimed for the machine as against 

 paper ballot are many, but possibly not all 

 .are justified. It does not, for example, abso- 

 lut.ly prevent fraud, for it baa been demon- 

 strated that a dishonest election official can so 

 manipulate the mechanism that a vote appar- 

 ently cast for one candidate is really recorded 



for another. The machine is so constructed 

 that a voter cannot cast several ballots at one 

 time, as is occasionally done when paper ballots 

 are dropped into the box. The operating 

 mechanism, especially for cities with many 

 candidates and many unintelligent people, pre- 

 sents difficulties, and in many instances where 

 voters have their choice of methods, they have 

 tried the machine and later abandoned it. 



A single machine, of a complex variety, may 

 cost as much as $10,000 to $20,000, although 

 the average cost does not exceed $3,000. W.F.Z. 



VOWEL, an open, resonant sound made by 

 the voice in speaking. It is the openness of 

 vowels that distinguishes them from consonants, 

 which are formed with the organs of speech 

 more or less closed. A vowel may itself con- 

 stitute a syllable, or it may be joined with one 

 or more consonants to produce one, but a con- 

 sonant cannot be pronounced by itself. In 

 English the vowel sounds are represented by 

 the letters a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes w and y, 

 but each letter is made to do duty for several 

 sounds. Thus a is pronounced as in hare, ham, 

 father, flask, hall, what, any, preface, final and 

 abound. The most open vowel sound is a as in 

 father; the least open, t in machine. Most 

 other languages have vowel sounds which tin- 

 English does not possess. 



VULCAN, vul'kan, in an- 

 cient mythology, the god of 

 fire and the patron of t he- 

 blacksmith and the artist in 

 metal. He was the son of 

 Jupiter and Juno, or, as 

 one fable says, 

 of Juno alone, 

 who produced 

 him that she might 

 not be eclipsed by Jupi- 

 ter, who had given birth 

 to Minerva. Vulcan 

 born lame and more 

 deformed, and so shocked 

 was his mother that she 

 thn-w him from Olympus; 

 but he was saved and 

 brought up by the nymphs 

 and Nereids, in a CM 

 nc.th the ocean. \\1. 

 gained his marvelous skill 

 in tho fashioning of objects 

 from m<t;tl 



VULCAN 

 From a statue In 

 the Vatican, Rome. 



It is said that in one of the quarrels between 

 Jupiter and Juno, the latter was suspended 

 between heaven and earth with anvils hanging 



