It would give independent and non-partisan movements a better chance, where formerly they were deterred by the almost prohibitory expense.[1] It would banish the ticket peddler from the polls and free the public from this great nuisance.[2] It would guarantee correct ballots to the electors,[3] and would make a candidate secure on the ticket. He could no longer be "traded off," "sold out," or "unbunched."[4]
Fourthly, it would soften the influence of political contests and create order and decency at the polls. Mr. Dutton after speaking of the disorder and violence of the old system in Australia said: "That was with open voting; but now all has disappeared. By the operation of the ballot the elections are conducted quietly; and as far as rioting is concerned, every vestige of it has disappeared."[5] Mr. Dana in discussing the Massachusetts law of 1888 said: "Quiet, order, and cleanliness reign in and about the polling-places. I have visited precincts where, under the old system, coats were torn off the backs of voters, where ballots of one kind have been snatched from voters' hands and others put in their places, with threats against using any but the substituted ballots; and under the new system all was orderly and peaceable. Indeed, the self-respect in voting under the new system is alone worth all the extra expense to the state."[6]
- ↑ Lippincott's, XLIV, 386, Political Science Quarterly, IV, 140; Post, Australian System of Voting, pp. 2-3.
- ↑ "The professional ticket peddlers will now disappear from politics. That had come to be a great nuisance to the public and expense to the candidates. It was disagreeable to be compelled in going to the polls to run the gantlet of a string of hired heelers, armed with packages of money; and their employment cost a great deal of money.—Chicago Inter Ocean, editorial, June 12, 1891. See also New York Times, editorial, March 27, 1888; Chicago Tribune, editorial, June 11, 1891; Scribner's, III, 194.
- ↑ Post, Election Reform, p. 7.
- ↑ Lippincott's, XLIV, 385.
- ↑ Parliamentary Papers, VIII, 358.
- ↑ Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, II, 738.
