The Iola Register

A RIGHTEOUS MEASURE.

The Protection of the Ballot in Congressional Elections.

There seems to be a probability that some definite legislation will be secured at the present session of Congress for the protection of the ballot in Federal elections in all the States of the Union. The election bill which has been agreed upon by the committees, and is now under consideration, proposes an extension of the existing statute in regard to the appointment of supervisors in cities to any district in which one hundred or more citizens may ask for such action; and it would seem that a law which has proved efficacious in the prevention of fraud and intimidation in the larger cities of the North should be welcomed everywhere as just and desirable. The bill includes a section which is designed to meet cases like those which occur in some Southern States, where the names of qualified voters are arbitrarily stricken from the registration lists, and also provides that ballots deposited by mistake in the wrong box, where more than one box is used, shall be counted. This is designed to meet the practice which prevails in South Carolina, where eight different ballot-boxes are sometimes used, and are so shifted about as to confuse the most ignorant voters. Under this bill two supervisors for each precinct are to be appointed by the United States Circuit Court upon the nomination of the chief supervisor-the same as under existing law -whose duty it shall be to watch the registration and counting of the votes, and who are themselves to make returns as a check on false counting. They are also authorized to open the polls when they are not opened by the State officials, and in such cases are to provide for receiving and counting and canvassing the ballots. This section would prevent the disfranchisement of voters in Republican districts, as is now sometimes done by failure on the part of interested officials to open the polls. It is also provided, and the provision is a most important one, that the canvassing board which shall make returns of the voting for members of Congress shall be appointed by a United States Circuit Court Judge. The certificate of this board, when received by the clerk of the House of Representatives, shall be prima facie evidence of the right to a seat in that body.
The whole aim of the proposed law is to secure fair elections, and it has not a single provision which can, under any condition of circumstances, operate harshly or arbitrarily upon any citizen or any party. That its passage would tend to largely abate the evils of fraudulent voting and unfair elections in some States there can be no doubt whatever.-Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.