The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1908. THE VOTING MACHINE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2365, 4 December 1908, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1908. THE VOTING MACHINE.

■ From time to time various inventors have endeavored to induce different Governments in New Zealand to use mechanical contrivances for registering votes at general elections, but hitherto they have failed to imbuo our legislators with their own enthusiasm. Many of these vote recorders have been exceedingly ingenious machines and it has been argued in their favor that a mechanical device can .record the votes quickly and accurately whilst there can be no suspicion of unscrupulous officials tampering with tOio secrecy of the ballot box. Under the circumstances, it is useful to note the experience which :Ins followed the use of voting machines in the United States, where they havo been tried in some localities for several years. Writing on the subject an American journal says: The enthusiasm over thjg mechanical device which, it wias thought, would reduce the cost and improve the honesty of elections is apparently -dying away. This is indicated by a vote in Newark, New Jersey, the other day, on this very question. The voting machine is in nse there, and the point submitted to the’ Newark voters was whether they should continuo its use or go hack to the old ballot box system. The machines were used for the election, and the result they registered wag overwhelmingly against them. In thirty of the thirty-one districts the vote stood 12 to 1 in favor of dropping the machines; in the thirty-first the machines got a majority, hut this i s thought to be duo to am error. The merits of the machine are well understood. It greatly facilitates tho count and the result can be announced immediately after .the polls close, without any possibility of an error in .addition; but there - are two weaknesses to the system. If the machine gets out of order and fail s to registor, .so that when the dials are opened they show nothing registered, or if it makes an - erroneous showing, tho evil can not

be remedied lin .any way whatever. When -the ballots are cast there is always the opportunity of reopen-

ing tho boxes and recounting tbo votes. With tho voting machine an error can not be cured or corrected. For these and similar reason s the voting machine is not as popular as it was a few years ago, which, in some respects, is to be regretted; for wo have not solved the problem—at least in this part of the country. —how to hold elections where ballot-box stuffing can bo prevented.

Fortunately we have not yet .reached a stage in this country whore bal-lot-box stuffing is .a bane of electoral contests, and the polling officials are as a rule gentlemen well above suspicion. Therefore, it would seem, in view of American experience, that wc cannot do better than adhere to our present system in the meantime. Later on there is little doubt that the voting machine, still further perfected, will be entrusted with what is, after all, a purely mechanical process.