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VOTING MACHINES
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VOTING See also:MACHINES . The complications in the voting at See also:American elections have resulted in the invention of various machines for registering and counting the ballots. These machines are in fact See also:mechanical Australian ballots. The See also:necessity for them has been emphasized by See also:election practice in many parts of the See also:United States, where in a single election there have been from five to ten parties on the See also:ballot, with an aggregate of four See also:hundred or five hundred candidates, making the See also:paper ballots large and difficult to handle. The objections to the paper ballot are further emphasized in the results obtained. The number of void and See also:blank ballots is seldom less than 5 % of the number of voters voting, and is often as high as 40%. This lost See also:vote is often greater than the See also:majority of the successful See also:candidate. In See also:close elections there is an endless dispute as to whether the disputed ballots do or do not comply with the See also:law. The election contest and recount expenses frequently exceed the cost of holding the election, and the See also:title of the candidates to the See also:office is frequently held in See also:abeyance by a protracted contest until after the See also:term of office has expired. A number of ways have been devised for marking the Australian ballot for See also:identification without destroying its legality. The X is a very See also:simple and well-known See also:mark, yet in the See also:case of Coulehan v. See also: Wigmore in his See also:book on the Australian ballot See also:system points out thirteen ways of wrongly placing the mark, and See also:forty-four errors in the See also:style of the mark, besides many other errors tending to invalidate the ballot, all of them having frequently occurred in actual practice. These errors are not confined to the illiterates, but are just as See also:common among the best-educated See also:people. The ballots can and have frequently been altered or miscounted by unscrupulous election See also:officers, and the detection of the See also:fraud is frequently difficult and always expensive.
Voting machines were devised first by See also:English, and later with more success by American inventors. The earlier machines of Vassie, See also: Some sixty-five or more of these machines were used in the election in the See also:city of See also:Rochester. N.Y., in See also:November 1896, and with marked success. The McTammany Machine, operated by keys which punched holes in a See also:web of paper. On this web the votes of each candidate were all punched in a single column, each See also:separate column representing a separate candidate. The voter does not see the web, which is removed from the machine by the election officers after the election is over, and the vote thereon is canvassed by passing the web through a pneumatic counting machine. The paper web makes a separate See also:record of each See also:man's ballot that can be identified by a See also:person skilled in the use of the machine. The machine is also slow in giving returns, due to the fact that the vote has to be counted after the election. In other types of machines each candidate had a separate receptacle, into which the machine dropped a ball for each vote that was See also:cast for the candidate. These machines have so far not been successful. The whole development of See also:practical voting machines has been limited to those machines in which a separate counter is provided for each candidate, the counter being operated either directly or indirectly by the voter. Of this type is the Myers machine, as well as the other machines mentioned here. The Bardwell Votometer had a separate counter for each candidate, with a single key for operating all the counters on the machine. A keyhole was provided in each counter, in which the key could be inserted, and by turning it 180° the counter was operated and the key could be removed for use in another counter. The voter could operate but one counter at a See also:time, and could not operate the counters in very rapid See also:succession. The limited use of this machine can be attributed principally to the slowness with which it can be worked. The voter enters this machine by raising a See also:bar at one end, which unlocks the counters for voting operation.' Raising a similar bar at the other end as the voter passes out resets the machine for the next voter and locks it. The See also:Abbott Machine has attained considerable use in the See also:state of See also:Michigan. In this machine the counters for each office are carried on a separate slide, and the voter moves these slides for the various offices from left to right, until the counter carrying the name of the candidate of his choice in each office See also:row is lined up with the operating bar. The vertical See also:movement of the operating bar See also:counts the vote on each of these slides, rings a See also:bell, which notifies the election officer that a vote has been cast, and locks the machine against further voting. The election officer then moves a slide which resets the machine for the next voter. The machine is limited in its application because two or more candidates on the same office line cannot be voted for by the same voter, although the voter may be entitled to vote for more than one candidate. The U.S. See also:Standard Voting Machine has had the most extensive use of any. A separate key is provided for each candidate, which keys are arranged on the keyboard of the machine in horizontal party rows and vertical office lines. Each key is shaped like a small pointer, which extends to the right from its See also:pivot, and passes through the keyboard. The key swings downward from horizontal position and points to the name of the candidate below it. The keys are lettered consecutively by party rows, and numbered by office rows, so that each key bears a number and a See also:letter distinguishing it from all others. At the left of each party row is a party See also:lever, by the movement of which all of the keys in that party row are simultaneously placed in voted position. In states that do not have party circles on the ballot these levers are omitted. Extending outward from the See also:top of the machine is a See also:rail, from which is suspended a See also:curtain. Pivoted in the See also:middle of the top of the machine is a lever,which extends outwardly and has a loose connexion with a curtain. The operation of the lever by a convenient handle enables the voter to close the curtain and unlock the machine for voting, after which the voter cannot retire from the machine until he has voted on the machine to a certain extent, The operation of any one of the party levers rings a bell to show that he has voted, and permits the See also:reverse movement of the curtain lever, which counts the vote, resets the machine for the next voter and opens the curtain. Before opening the curtain the vote is not counted, and the voter can take back or See also:change his vote. Repeating is prevented by a knob on the end of the machine, which locks the curtain lever against a second movement until it is released by the election officer. At the top of the machine is a paper See also:roll on which the voter can write the names of candidates whose names do not appear on the machine in connexion with keys. This roll is concealed by slides, one for each office line of keys, which slides must be lifted to expose the paper. An interlocking mechanism controls all the voting devices so that the voter cannot vote more than he is entitled to vote. These machines have been built large enough to provide for seven parties of sixty candidates each, and for See also:thirty questions and amendments, a machine of such See also:size carrying 48o counters, besides the See also:total vote and protective counters. The See also:Dean Machine has its keyboard placed horizontally, the keys being push buttons, which are arranged in party columns and transverse office rows. Party levers are provided by which the keys of the party are moved to voted position. Considerable stress is laid on the small keyboard of this machine, the See also:peculiar type of counter used on it, and the separate card ballot for voting for unnominated candidates. Each state that adopts voting machines first enacts a law specifying the requirements that must be met in the construction of the machines. These requirements are substantially the same in all the states, the See also:laws being copied largely from the New York Voting Machine Law. The laws require in See also:general that the machine shall give the voter all the facilities for expressing his choice which the Australian ballot gives him, and further require that the machine shall prevent those mistakes or frauds, which if made on an Australian ballot would invalidate it. Many of the states have See also:special requirements, to meet which many ingenious features have been provided on the various machines. Among these is the See also:group of 18 supervisors in See also:San Francisco, for which office as many as io8 candidates have appeared upon one ballot, out of which the machine must permit the voter to vote any 18 and no more, regardless of the sequence in which they are selected, or the position in which they occur. Another of these See also:local features is the See also:primary election feature required by See also:Minnesota, in which state the various parties must hold their primary election at the same time and on the same machine. The voter announcing the party of his-preference finds the voting devices on the machine of all other parties locked against him, but the voting devices of his own party are open to his use. Still another is the lockout, by which the voter of limited voting franchises is prevented from voting for the candidates of certain offices. Another is the endorsed candidate in a group. Here the same candidate's name is provided with two or more voting devices in a group wherein the voter is allowed to vote for two or more candidates. Special See also:provision must then be made to keep voters from voting twice for the same candidate. As to the important benefits attending the use of machines, there can be mentioned accuracy both in the casting and the counting of the vote, See also:speed in getting in returns, and See also:economy in holding elections. The improvement in accuracy is shown by the fact that the vote for each office usually runs 99% or more of the highest possible vote that could be registered by the number of voters that have voted. Speed is shown by the fact that in the city of See also:Buffalo, with 6o,000 voters voting on election See also:day, the See also:complete returns, including the vote on over See also:loo candidates for the whole city, have been collected, tabulated and announced within qs minutes from the closing of the polls. Economy is shown by the fact that although these machines are used but one or two days in each See also:year, election expenses are reduced to such an extent that the machines pay for them-selves in five or six elections. This is partly due to the smaller number of precincts necessary and the smaller number of election officers in each See also:precinct and the shorter See also:hours that they must See also:work. The city of Buffalo has a dozen or more precincts, in each of which Boo voters or more are voted in an election day of ten hours, and in that city as many as 1041 voters have voted in one election day on one machine (F. KE.) follow this idea of using balls to indicate their votes. Others, however, maintaining that secrecy was the essential idea of voting by ballot, and that the See also:form of the ballot was immaterial, worked on the idea of using a key and a counter for each candidate, the counter registering the successive impulses given to it by the key, the machine preventing the voter from giving the key more than one impulse, and preventing the voter from operating more keys than he is entitled to vote. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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