ections ought to be so constituted that
minorities as well as majorities will have a fair representation in
them, is so plainly just that in some parts of the State, even in
times of the highest political excitement, such representation has
been obtained, in the absence of law, by arrangement between the
committees of the rival political parties. It is not probable that
any mode of selecting judges and clerks of elections can be adopted
which will, in every case, accomplish this object. But in all cases
where the strength of the minority is half, or nearly half as great
as that of the majority, the desired representation of the minority
may be insured with sufficient certainty by several different
plans. For example, it may be provided that at the election of the
three judges who are to decide all questions at the polls, each
elector may be allowed to vote for two candidates only, and that
the three candidates having the highest number of votes shall be
declared elected, and in like manner that, at the election of the
two clerks of elections, each elector may vote for one candidate
only, and that the two candidates receiving the highest number of
votes shall be declared elected.

I do not lay much stress on the particular plan here suggested, but
your attention is invited to the importance of a fair
representation of the minority in all boards of elections, not
doubting that your wisdom will be able to devise a suitable measure
to accomplish it.

All parts of the State of Ohio are now so closely connected with
each other, and with other States, by lines of railway, that great
and constantly increasing facilities are afforded for the
perpetration of the class of frauds on the elective franchise,
commonly known as "colonizing." In the cities, men called
"repeaters," it is said, are paid wages according to the number of
unlawful votes they succeed in casting at the same election.

The increase of population adds to the difficulty of detecting and
preventing fraudulent voting, in whatever mode it may be practiced.
It is manifestly impossible, amid the hurry and excitement of an
election, that the legal right to vote, of every person who may
offer his ballot, should be fully and fairly investigated and
decided. The experience of many of the older