The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 774, 9 February 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1871.

We Lave previously explained that the system of numbering tbe papers under the vote by ballot is for tbe purpose of securing a clue to any malpractice in connection with the exercise of the franchise. The necessity of being able to trace any person ation or double voting must become at once apparent, when tbe facility wi'.h which irregularities may be carried out comes to be considered. Assuming, for instance, that the voting pa:;ers had not been numbered, any person on the electoral roll might with impunity have recorded his vote at each of the polling places, and no .race of the irregularity could have been discovered. In adopting the system of numbering the papers a sufficient guarantee is at once obtained that the voting shall be fairly carried out, detection in the event of personation or double voting being on easy matter, and the punishment when a conviction has been obtained being commensurate to the enormity of the offence. It is, however, iu dealing with the miner's right or business license as a qualification for the exercise of the franchise, that the subject appears surrounded with greater em harrassment, and the danger of fraud being practised is increased by the difficulty of identifying the right with the holder, and by the fact that while nearly half the miners possess more than one miner's right, the risk of detection is so lessened as to form a scareely sufficient obstacle in the way of double voting. The only mode in which, so long as the miner's right remains a voting qualification, this personation or double voting may be effectually guarded against, is by issuing to any party applying for a second miner's right a document differing from the ordinary right, suck document to afford the holder all the privileges enjoyed under a miner's right, excepting the power to vote. By this means what may become a very fruitful source of fraud would be removed. Complaints have also reached us that the present mode of stamping the rights is -very defective. It will be readily understood that a greasy piece of parchment is not the most favorable surface on which to stamp a record that the holder had exercised the miner's right franchise, and so ineffective, we are given to understand, was the stamping of these documents *at some of the polling booths, that in several instances on leaving the polling booth, parlies had no difficulty in effacing the endorsements. This, however, is a matter which admits oi easy remedy, the substitution of an embossed stamp being all that is necessary to remove any doubt as to the permanence of the stamp.