HOW TO SECURE MAJORITY RULE
Bickel, Karl A.
HOW TO SECURE MAJORITY RULE Practical Test of the Preferential System Whereby You can Vote for Five Candidates at the Same Time and Deliver a Knock-out Blow to the "Gang" By KARL A. BICKEL DID...
...He was the only candidate before the people who had been a member of the charter convention...
...Todd is a Socialist...
...Like sheep they can be herded and controlled by a small minority cf "gray wolves" because of their lack of political experience and their inability to carry on sustained and expensive political campaign...
...For his first choice, which is supposed to signify that he believes this man better qualified for the office than any other, he marks the usual cross after the name of John Doe in the first choice column...
...All petitions must be in the hands of the city clerk twenty days before election and the person nominated must file a formal acceptance of the nomination with the same official within the five days following...
...To the first choice votes of each candidate remaining is then added all of their second choices...
...It had just passed through a very exciting campaign in which the liquor issue was paramount and in which the city had gone "dry...
...The vote in Todd's case however, went to the third choices before an election was made...
...The campaign of the charter candidates was unique in America in as much as it exhibited eleven rival candidates for five different commissionerships working each individually for their own election but jointly to secure the certain election 'of one of their number...
...Under the Berkeley and Colorado Springs "plans," no candidate having a plurality, the two highest (in this case Aupperle and Bannister) would be pitted against each other in a bitter second election...
...This petition, containing the name of the candidate, must be signed by twenty-five electors who have not at that time signed any other petition nominating any other candidate for the same office...
...Under the Grand Junction charter the initial nominations are made by petition...
...99........231........238...
...Four of these men, D. W. Aupperle, E. M. Slocomb, N. A. Lough, and Thomas M. Todd had been associated together in the previous contests to obtain the calling of the charter convention, in the election to select the delegates to the charter convention and election in which the charter was approved of by the people In local political circles they were known as "Charter men...
...The signer also makes affidavit to the following statement: OFFICIAL BALLOT General Municipal Election...
...Their remain Louis Hoe, Dick Joe and Richard Roe...
...vote any other choice ,n the thud column vole only one firsl and only one second choice...
...HOW TO SECURE MAJORITY RULE Practical Test of the Preferential System Whereby You can Vote for Five Candidates at the Same Time and Deliver a Knock-out Blow to the "Gang" By KARL A. BICKEL DID YOU ever vote for five candidates for mayor, all running at the same election and for the same office...
...He is a man of considerable wealth, being heavily interested in lumber...
...The question of national party affiliations, however, was not once referred to during the entire : campaign...
...658 Lutes...
...Why the Preferential System Was Adopted GRAND JUNCTION is a comparatively small city of 11,000 people, but one that has great promise and one that is rapidly growing...
...Two other candidates W. H. Bannister and E. B. Lutes were also nominated...
...He was a charter man...
...In politics these men had always been associated with the "Anti-Charter" people, their stand on the saloon issue was problematical...
...The voter takes the ballot from the judge and retires to the booth...
...He was the only candidate in this group that received a majority of the votes cast...
...The history of progressive ^politics in municipal America is strewn with wrecks of campaigns which were heaped on the reef in this way...
...Richard Roe, let us say, is the candidate of the "Interests...
...The people walked to the polls to vote...
...If no candidate has a majority in the first choice, the candidate having the least number of first choice votes is dropped out of the count...
...If so you will read with interest the results of the first practical test of the preferential or "choice" system of voting in America...
...In their hands it was felt the first and necessarily experimental years of the charter would be safe...
...I fmther ceitify that I join in this petition for the nomination cf the above named person believing- that he has not become a candidate as the nominee and representative of, or any committee or convention representing or acting for, any political party...
...739 Todd.................262........292........396........1050 Slocomb...
...The opposition opened a general attack upon the charter, and the different candidates personally hired canvassers to present their candidacies to the people...
...Lutes ran by himself on a personal platform and was not a factor of moment in the contest...
...The vote ran: First Choice Second Third Total Aupperle.............465........143........145...
...He knows, however, that Hoe and Joe are good men and while he is not enthused over their candidacy, he would much rather see them elected than Roe...
...To use this carriage the candidate must file a description of it with the city clerk the day prior to election...
...Two of the other commissioners elected were Republican and the other two were Democratic...
...The broad issue in the campaign was based on whether the charter should be placed in the hands of charter men or anti-charter men and the lines of cleavage broke along that line...
...In one of these the candidate was unopposed, in one it was a straight battle between two men, in another five men were candidates and in the fifth, three...
...The charter expressly provides that no candidate can be supported by any party, organization or committee, hut early in the campaign the Grand Junction Good Government League issued a sample ballot with the names of the "charter" candidates printed in red and started a campaign advising the friends of the charter and good government to vote for ALL of the candidates known as friends of the charter...
...It also aims and does deliver a heart-breaking blow at those who would manipulate an election by organization and obtain success, through organizaton, over an unorganized majority of the people...
...Will of Majority is Registered UNDER the common system of election Mr...
...Suspicion was also cast upon one of them due to the alleged advocacy of his election by high ofr.cials in the public utility corporations...
...The majority of the people are generally right but usually unorganized...
...In embryo it already had its public utility companies who had, in the past, taken an active part in politics...
...Old line party affiliations were completely lost sight of...
...It was this almost universal support in the second and third choice columns that won the day for that gentleman...
...This campaign was placed in the hands of a city chairman, who in turn arranged for dozens of meetings and sent out some fifty volunteer canvassers by whom the people were instructed how to vote the preferential system, and to vote for the men who were known to Be friends of the new system of city government...
...In the spring election, under the old system, 2,610 votes had been cast and something like one hundred teams and automobiles were used to bring voters to the polling places...
...243........357........326...
...This gave him a majority and elected him...
...It has long been a favorite practice with accomplished and mercenary politicians when faced with a reform movement of dangerous proportions to effect a division in the ranks of the "reformers" by egging on a number of candidates to run for office...
...243 It will be observed that none of the candidates for the Commissionership of Public Affairs received a plurality on the first count...
...Remember a voter can vote but one choice for first choice, one choice for second choice but in the third choice column he can vote for as many as he will save one...
...Do not vote more than one choice for one person, as only ,w ihoice will < ount lor any t.mdni.m- by th.s ballot Omit votm* im om- name (or «ach office, if more than one candidate therefor All di'trngunhmg m.irks m.ike the balt.it % md M vou wrongly mark, tear, o, driVe th.s ballot...
...The outspoken "anti's" concentrated their whole vote on one...
...In the fall elections 1,848 votes were cast and two candidates' automobiles were employed...
...w H.'PJ'EKLF...
...It showed up well in the first choices and then melted away...
...In the contest for the Commissionership of Public Affairs, Thomas M. Todd was elected...
...They had the tacit endorsement of the progressive citizens, the anti-saloon people and the Good Citizenship League...
...Respectively these squares are designated "First Choice," "Second Choice," "Third Choice...
...The opposition did not fully appreciate the advantage of this course and appealed for single first choices only...
...The friends of the charter candidates at all of their meetings and through their canvassers laid especial stress on voting for all of the charter candidates and this movement was aided by the acts of candidates who advised all of their friends both in person and in their literature to vote for the candidate for first choice but for all of the charter candidates in turn...
...The good citizen does not want to vote for Richard Roe...
...He picks Foe for second choice and marks a cross after Foe's name in the second choice column...
...Many Bannister first choice voters voted for Todd for second choice and third choice...
...Practically all of the electors who voted first choice on Aupperle, Slocomb, and Lough gave Todd their second or third choice...
...Without doubt, however, the incorporation of the preferential or "choice" system of voting into the charter was the single prevision that excited the most comment...
...James Foe, however, is a good man and honest...
...This in brief is the preferential system...
...As in the first choice result Bannister lead in the second choice totals with a vote of 696, Aupperle had 608, Slocomb 600 and Todd 554...
...753 Bannister............603...
...City of Grand Junction, Colo...
...On this count Lutes, being the low man, went out and none of his second or third choices figure in the balance of the election...
...There was a falling off of the vote as a result...
...The friends of the charter system had four candidates in the running...
...The system on first glance appears complicated but in reality it is but little more involved than the usual system of voting the straight Australian "blanket" ballot...
...It looks towards securing the election of that candidate for public office who is indisputably the most popular man...
...How the Reiult U Determined NOW to find out who is elected...
...For the first time in the political history of the United States the preferential system of voting was given a practical trial in the municipal election at Grand Junction, Colorado, on November 2. The election was the first to be held under the new Grand Junction charter...
...Immediately afterwards the city clerk makes up the ballot and samples of the same are placed in conspicuous places about the city and near all voting places...
...Any citizen of "good moral character" can be nominated by the filing oi a petition with the city clerk...
...There were four other commissionerships also involved in the election...
...The preferential system allows the elector to vote for as many candidates for any given office as there are candidates nominated, save one...
...As these candidates are under oath that they are not running in the interests of any party organization no emblems or partisan designations are on the ballot...
...Under the Grand Junction charter the candidate to win, up to the counting of the third choices, must have a majority op the vote cast for all op the candidates...
...916 Lough...
...November 2. A. D. 1909 INSTRUCTION-To vole- io, any person, mak^., cross <X_) Pn ink m the so.u.ire in the appropr, Jumtycco.d...
...Only two of the candidates availed themselves of this privilege...
...How to Vote Your Choices THE ballot contains a list of the full names of all of the nominees running foT any office under the title of the office that is being contended for...
...for Commissioner of Public Affairs <-n cu-, On*t m <hU...
...arid had called its charter convention, as any city can do in Colorado that has a population of over 2,000 people, and for the first time in the twenty-two years of the city's existence, the movement towards "progressive" government was receiving the general support of a large mass of the people...
...Following each group of candidates are three columns of squares...
...Indeed the charter forces won in every office...
...Behind him are gathered all the power and wealth of the "organization...
...Let us state for illustration that he has five candidates to choose from for a certain office...
...in the second column...
...Bannister would have been elected...
...To protect the city in the future and save it from the fate of many of its larger brothers, the domination of the municipal utility corporations and the organized seekers for special privilege, the twenty-one members of the charter convention determined upon the adoption of the preferential system...
...41........114...
...It was in the third choices where Todd's large non-factional popularity was in the greatest evidence and in this column he is credited with 396 votes...
...The aim of the system is plain...
...Bannister received the solid "anti" vote...
...If no candidate then has a majority of the votes cast, the third choice votes of each candidate are added on the vote and a majority vote then wins...
...Had it not been for the preferential system the result would have been the same in Grand Junction...
...This charter is remarkable in many ways, having been termed by experts to be the "most democratic instrument ever presented to any city in America" and having attracted by many of its unique provisions widespread attention from all parts of the United States...
...The preferential system operates as a nominating primary and an election at the same time and also disposes of the expensive and cumbersome "second" elections as are sometimes required in cities under charters or "plans" similar to those now in operation at Colorado Springs, or Berkeley, California...
...Now this is the way that it worked in Grand Junction on November 2. How it Woiked in Grand Junction THERE were six candidates nominated for Commissioner of Public Affairs, which office is identical wth that of mayor in cities not under the commission system...
...So he places a cross in the Third Choice column after both the names of Hoe and Joe...
...The names are placed in alphabetical order...
...W H BANNISTER N A LOUGH E B UJTES EDWIN* M SLOCOMB for Commissioner of Water and Sewers nOSTWICK W VEDDER for Commissioner of finance and Supplies LEON J CHAPMAN 1 H. F vyRBECK "I also certify that I.believe that the above named person is especially qualified to fill the said rffice and is cf a rood moral character...
...The charter forbids the use of carriages or any other means of conveyances to bring the voters to the polls save one carriage for each candidate, which can be used by tb/it candidate to bring to the polls voters who are sick or infirm...
...Did you ever wish that some system might be devised whereby the unorganized masses might have a chance at the polls against the highly-organized minority...
...Corrupt politics, argued the members of the Grand Junction charter convention, is always highly organized politics...
Vol. 2 • January 1910 • No. 4
