Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/856

* ELECTORAL REFORM. 744 ELECTORAL VOTES. pendent voter from exercising any considerable iulluence in the selection of candidates for public oUice. The recent increase in the number of inde- pendent voters has given theni new weight in poli- tics, and they are now demanding a fiirllier re- form, which has in contemplation the substitution of 'direct' for i)rimary and caucus nominations. This is to be elTected by permitting a specified number of registere<l voters to place a candidate in nomination directly, by a written declaration signed by them, and without the intervention of the machinery of caucuses and conventions new employed. All candidates for a given office being nominated in the same simple and direct way. it is assumed that they will represent the unconstrained choice of the electorate, and that all will occupy an equal footing as candidates. The method of 'direct nominations,' as it is called, has recently been adopted in several of the Western States, and is apparently meeting with increasing favor in other parts of the coun- try. The experiment is too new, however, to fur- nish any satisfactory evidence of its real value. . flagrant example of the control of elections by corrupt party managers was formerly afforded by the pocket and rotten boroughs of England, which were disfranchised by the Reform Bill of 1832. These were boroughs (having the right to elect members of Parliament) that were controlled by non-resident noblemen, either by reason of their landed pro])rietorship or of their purchase of the electors. In many of them the number of voters was very small. For example, the borough of Gatton had but seven electors, and that of Old Sarum but one — the keeper of an alehouse. Wlien Lord Kussell introduced his Refmni Bill in 1831, 90 members of Parliament were returned by 40 bor- oughs with less than HO votes each, and a major- itv of the House of Commons was elected bv 1.5,000 out of 3,000,000 nuile adults. One peer controlled boroughs whieli sent up 11 members of his choice to the House of Commons, while some of the great manufacturing centres had no representation in Parliament. The Peform Bill disfranchised .5ii of these rotten boroughs, and made a new distribution of Parliamentary repre- sentatives throughout the kingdom. A condition of things somewhat similar to that in Britain when Lord Russell introduced his Reform Bill exists in some of our J^tates, notably Connecticut, where the unit of legislative repre- sentation is the township. A century and a half ago such a basis of representation was a fair one. Now it is not. Jlany of the towns have now a smaller population than a hundred years ago, while others liave increased their voters a tliousandfold. As a result, a handful of electors in a rural township may have an equal voice in the State Legislature with a thousand electors in a large village or a city. Agitations for a redis- tribution of legislative representatives will con- tinue undoubtedly until the present condition of things in such States is changed. The Fourteenth .mendment to the Federal Con- stitution (U'ovides th.it when the right to vote at any Federal or Stiite election is cating >y voters, and briln'ry and intimidation liy candidates for ollicc or llieir jiarlisans. Both in Britain and in this country repeated cll'orts have been made liy legislators to eradicate these practices, but without entire success. Perhaps the most comprehensive and rigorous piece of legislation of this sort is the British Corrupt Practices Act of 1883, with its amendments. Its principal features are: (1) The severe jienalties inflicted upon those guilty of false personation at the polls or of voting more tlian once at the same election, as well as ui)on all who indulge in the intimidation, undue influence, or bribery of voters; ('2) the restriction williin very narrow limits of the employment of paid agents, clerks, messengers, and others by candidates or election committees; (3) the prescribing of a fixed scale of lawful expenditures by candidates and com- mittees; (4) requiring a full and correct account of such expenditures. Several of our States have laws of a similar character. .Mtliough none of them are as sweeping or as ciTeclive as the Brit- ish act, their results have been beneficial. A lucid account of the provisions and workinu' of the British statute, by its draftsman. Sir Henry James, will be found in The Forum for April, 1803 (vol. xv.. p. 1'20), The article is followed by accounts of similar statutes in sev- eral of our States. LoYd Bradbourne criticises the British act in a series of very entertaining articles on '"Old Flections in England" {Hind- irood's Magazine, cli. 7fi3, and id., clii. 38, '248, 688). Some of the grosser forms of fraud at elections, such as the use of fraudulent and tissue ballots and the stuffing of ballot-boxes, have been ren- dered obsolete by the adoption of the Australian ballot, and the assumption by the State of the duty of furnishing an official ballot in place of the ])arty ballot formerly provided by the sev- eral party organizations. The ]U'actice of re- peating, dishonest counts, and false returns of votes have been checked by t!ie registration of voters, the' provision of an increased number of official watchers at the polls, and, in some parts of the country, by the employment of voting and counting machines. See B.m.i.ot; Cokhipt Practices; Election-; Votino-JI.vcihxe. Con- sult: Bishop, Colnninl Elect ioiia (New York. 1803) ; Dallinger. yomitmtionti for Elective Office (New York. 1897): Stiircks, Primiin/ Election Lcfiixlation (New York. 1898) ; Ward. Treatise on the Lair Relating to Parliainentarif and ilu- nicipril Eleelionx (2d ed.. London. 188G). ELECTORAL VOTES. The votes cast by Pre^iilential cIcctinN in the I'nited States for the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candi- dates. The candidates for the two offices were not voted for separately until afti'r 1805, before which tin!e the candidate receiving the largest total nundier of votes at any given election was declared President, and the one receiving the next largest number the Vice-President. The electoral votes cast in the various campaigns since 1789 hav? been as follows: In 1789: George Washington, 09; John .dams. 34; Sam- uel Iliuitington. 2: .Tohn -Jay, 9; John Hancock, 4; Robert H. Harrison, fi: George Clinton. 3: Joliii Pvutlcdge, 0; .John Milton, 2; James Arm-