Fairness and honesty in the conduct of elections will alone keep pure the sources of power in this government, and thus promote peace and good order and give stability to our institutions. Our election laws ought to be framed and executed with a view to securing these great ends, but truth compels the statement that our statutes are exceedingly imperfect in themselves, and, what is worse, are too often administered in the interest, not of purity and justice, but of party. It is not to be denied that many of the wisest and best of our citizens consider that our institutions are in peril, from the fact that popular elections are so frequently controlled by fraud and violence. Wise and prudent citizens may well say that, if we lose faith in the machinery provided for the expression of the popular will, we must also eventually lose faith in our form of free government, since it can be valuable only in proportion as it is in fact, as well as in theory, a government by the people. As our population increases and our great cities multiply, the problem of how to secure and preserve freedom and fairness in elections, grows annually more grave and difficult. It is to-day a question of how to secure and record a fair and honest expression from nearly nine millions of voters. Within the lifetime of some of the present generation it will become a question of dealing with at least thirty millions of voters. To be assured that this problem has been solved, is to know that our greatest danger has been removed, and therefore every citizen should be willing to contribute something toward its solution. Let it be premised that the ends to be aimed at by legislation

upon this subject are (1), to secure to all legal voters equal and ample opportunity to vote, and to exclude all others; and (2), to secure a fair canvass and an honest declaration of the result of every election. No difference of opinion can exist among honest men as to the propriety, nay the necessity, of securing these ends, which all will admit constitute the foundation upon which the fabric of free government rests. To render them secure, is to perpetuate our institutions and transmit them pure and strong to future generations. It would seem that no State should hesitate to provide the legislation necessary to secure ends so manifestly just, and so essential to the very existence of free government. Many of the laws upon this subject were originally enacted for the government of a largely rural and agricultural population, who needed few if any restraints, and they have been copied and applied to communities very differently situated from such a population, and, as a whole, by no means so well disposed toward law and order. Assuming that the ends to be sought are freedom and equality among voters, and honesty and perfect fairness in the count, and that these great ends are not always secured under existing laws, let us inquire how we may remedy existing evils by legislation. It is believed that plain, simple, and ample remedies are within our reach, the adoption of which would injure none, while, as nearly as human laws can do so, they would protect the rights of all.

§ 558. First in importance as a means of securing freedom in elections, are such statutory provisions as will prevent the crowding of the polling places by large numbers of people. In some of the States all

the voters of an entire county may vote at the county seat, and in all the large cities, and in many of the smaller ones, the crowds that assemble at the polls are large and often disorderly and turbulent. The evils that result from overcrowding the polling places are apparent enough:

1. It delays the process of voting so that each voter waiting for his turn may be detained for hours. Many business men, who value time more highly than the right of suffrage, are deterred from voting by this consideration alone.

2. It makes it a difficult and disagreeable task for quiet, orderly people, and especially for the sick, lame, and infirm, to press their way through the throng, and many of these are thereby deterred from voting.

3. It makes it impossible to consider with deliberation and decide intelligently questions arising at the polls as to the qualifications of persons whose votes are challenged, and this leads to erroneous rulings. But, what is worse, it affords evil-minded persons the opportunity, by frequent challenges and by unnecessary discussion, to so delay the proceedings as to consume the day and exclude large numbers of legal voters, who by these interruptions, are prevented from reaching the polls within the time required.

4. The practice of crowding the polls by the members of one party, who open the way for their friends and put all possible obstacles in the way of their opponents, is frequently resorted to as a means of defeating a full and fair vote.

§ 559. All these mischiefs can be remedied by requiring a multiplication of voting precincts to

such an extent that only a limited number of voters -say not over three hundred-shall be residents of, and voters in any one precinct. This, with a further provision requiring every voter to register and vote in his own precinct and in no other, would, if adopted in all the States, work a reform of vast importance and consequence. This very important subject of legislation is by no means the most difficult one with which our law-makers have to deal. The task of providing against the most crying evils of our system of election laws should be approached with the conviction that the people can well afford to be put to some pains and expense in order to protect the purity of the ballot, and, if thus approached, the problem will be found very easy of solution. The multiplication of voting precincts will prove an effectual remedy for all the evils which result from overcrowding the polling places, some of which are specified above. A properly guarded statute upon this subject would secure, as a rule, sufficient time and opportunity at each poll for the orderly, deliberate and satisfactory transaction of the business of receiving and depositing the ballots of all legal voters, and for the examination and decision of disputed questions arising at the election. Let us suppose that a population containing three hundred voters be the basis upon which election precincts are to be organized, who does not see that, with only that number of votes to be received in the course of the day, the election could be conducted decently and in order? Contrast such an election with the attempt in a great city to receive the ballots of many thousands of voters and pass upon hundreds of challenges!

§ 560. In connection with the increase of the number and reduction of the size of precincts, there should be provided a complete registration, and by this is meant an enumeration of the legal voters of each precinct, made with the utmost possible care. By requiring that each precinct shall be small in the sense of containing only a limited number of voters, and by appointing a board of registration for each precinct, it will be practicable and easy to enroll every voter. This process is especially necessary in the city precincts, and its application only to them would probably be entirely sufficient. If the precinct is not too large in the country, the judge of the election or the bystanders will be able to recognize the voters, with rare exceptions. But in the cities, where the registry must be relied on, provisions should be made to render it accurate, and none but registered voters should be allowed to vote. The persons preparing the lists should be required, if necessary, to go from house to house, and by all reasonable means to make sure that no legal voter is omitted, and the voters themselves should be made to know that they must register if they wish. to enjoy the franchise. Whoever neglects to enroll himself as a voter, cannot complain that he is not allowed to vote. The registry list should be printed or written, and posted up at the most public places in the precinct at least ten days prior to the day of election, and corrections and additions should be made up to the day before the election. With these two requirements, namely, small precincts and complete registration, how easy becomes the task of receiving and depositing in the box the ballots of all who are entitled to vote! There can be no objec