918 
inventive genius of our people and as an 
irruption of that genius into an unexpected 
line of work, important in its bearings upon 
good politics and on economics, through a 
better insurance of the expression of the 
real judgment and intent of the people, as 
given at the polls. 
The ‘voting machine’ is an apparatus 
consisting of a very simple arrangement of 
a very simple form of mechanical counter, 
in groups, in such manner that, when the 
voter moves a handle or presses a button 
over a certain name, opposite the designa- 
tion of a certain office, on the front of the 
machine, the act moves that individual 
counter one notch, and one is added to the 
reading on that particular count. It is 
also so arranged that, if the voter desires to 
vote a whole, ‘a straight’ ticket, the pulling 
down of a handle, or the pressing of a 
button at the limit of the line of names of 
candidates, moves the counters of every 
individual candidate on that ticket and one 
motion counts a party-vote. Further, it 
is, in all approved voting machines, possi- 
ble to vote any ‘split ticket’ and it is made 
a matter of fundamental construction that 
no voter shali be able to vote more than 
once for any candidate or for any party. 
In other words: the machine is con- 
structed so that each voter shall, by the 
simple acts described, be able to vote, within 
the law, precisely as he may choose, while 
it is impossible for him to do anything 
which the law forbids. He has absolute 
freedom to do right ; he cannot possibly do 
a legal wrong. The ingenuity and sim- 
plicity of these machines and the positive cer- 
tainty of their operation as desired within 
legal limits make them, as a class, extraordi- 
narily interesting studies in mechanism. 
In New York, as in, now, quite a number 
of other states, there are provisions of law 
permitting and regulating the use of these 
machines and they have now had so ex- 
tended and so extensive a trial that it is 
SCIENCE, 
[N.S. Von. X. No. 260. 
possible to speak positively of them as, 
where of approval construction, an entire 
and singular success. In New York, no 
voting machine can be employed until it 
has been fully inspected, carefully studied 
and unqualifiedly approved, by the Voting 
Machine Commission ; from whom a report 
must be secured, and filed in the office of 
the Secretary of State, to the effect that the 
machine is capable of registering six hun- 
dred voters in the election hours, accurately 
and efficiently, can be safely employed for 
that purpose, and that the Legislature of 
the State is justified in legalizing its use. 
Under these provisions of Jaw, the cities of 
Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, Ithaca and other 
smaller places, have now used the ma- 
chines in regular elections. In one or two 
places, older forms of machine, introduced 
before the commission for their inspection 
and endorsement was formed, have not 
proved satisfactory ; but the later experi- 
ments have been entirely so, and Buffalo 
has 108, Rochester 73, and other places 
lesser numbers, all of which are reported to 
have proved a marvellous success. 
One of these machines costs $500, regis- 
ters a maximum, under the law—there is no 
limit in construction—600 voters, at the 
rate of 5 to 15 seconds each voter, saves $16 
a year in cost of operating a precinct, $40 
to $50 in election printing, and, by enabling 
a reduction to be made in the number of 
election precincts, saves about $200 on each 
one abolished. In Ithaca, the reduction, if 
the law is followed precisely, will be not 
less than two nor more than four districts, 
out of ten; saving the city from twenty to 
forty per cent. net on the investment. The 
following were the conclusions reported by 
the Finance Committee to the City Council 
and the people of Ithaca : 
“Summarizing our conclusions your Finance Com- 
mittee would respectfully submit that 
‘“(1) The voting machine is a simple, reliable, 
durable and convenient apparatus for its purpose. 
