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Indiana University 
positions as governor or United States senator. Whether the 
same lack of means would have prevented them from securing 
a majority of the pledged delegates in a delegate convention 
is a matter upon which opinions differ. 
The seventh question relates to the cost of the primary, 
which, as provided by law, is divided between the state and 
the municipalities. The state pays for the printing and dis- 
tributing of ballots, sample ballots, notices, and cards of in- 
structions, while “the expense of calling and holding the pri- 
mary elections, and the making and forwarding of the returns 
thereof, is . . . paid for by the municipalities”.'^^ 
The cost to the state of holding primary elections for the 
seven biennial periods since 1912 is shown in the following 
table: 
TABLE IX 
1912 $13,353.94 
1914 8,871.71 
1916 10,517.51 
1918 9,160.17 
1920 12,421.81 
1922 14,587.25 
1924 19,210.39 
Total for the seven biennial periods 88,123.34 
Average 12,589.05 
Average per capita -015 
The increase in the cost of the 1924 primary was due solely 
to the extraordinary expense of the recount of the vote for 
gubernatorial candidates. 
Statistics furnished by the treasurers or auditors of the 20 
cities show that the total cost to the cities of the June pri- 
maries was $14,427.93, which amounted to about $0,038 per 
capita. Similar statistics from 20 selected towns show an 
expenditure by them of $1,418.20 or a per capita expenditure 
of $0.0145. As the 40 municipalities examined make up four- 
sevenths of the entire population of the state, it would seem 
fair to estimate that the cost of the primaries to all cities and 
towns would not be more than 21/2 cents per capita, or about 
$19,000 for the cities and towns in the state. Assuming the 
Maine, Revised Statutes, 1918, chap, vi, sec. 9. 
Official figures from the records in the state treasurer’s office. 
