ck
up the results of the bribe, corruption may reign supreme with little
risk of being found out. A study of some of the recent suffrage votes
gives significant food for reflection. It shows how the form, color
and arrangement of the ballot may help the corrupt politician to
organize ignorant voters to do his will. In Georgia and Louisiana no
party names are printed on the official ballot and emblems only are
used. In almost half our states, though the party name is used also,
the emblem is the real guide. New York does not even relegate this
emblem to the top of the column. The emblem is placed before the name
of each candidate, so that the illiterate voter can make no mistake in
recognizing the sign of the machine which controls his vote. Scarcely
more than a dozen states have the headless ballot[A] which makes
it impossible for politicians to make corrupt use of the illiterate
voter.

[Footnote A: Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida, Colorado,
California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, Nebraska, Pennsylvania.]

In Wisconsin suffrage referendum the suffrage ballot was separate and
pink. It was easy to teach the most illiterate how to vote "No" and
to check up returns with considerable accuracy. In New York there
were three ballots. The official ballot had emblems which easily
distinguished it. The other two were exactly alike in shape, size and
color and each contained three propositions: those which came from
the constitutional convention and the other those which came from the
Legislature. The orders went forth to vote down the constitutional
provisions and it was done by a majority of 482,000, or nearly
300,000 more than the majority against woman suffrage. On the
ballot containing the suffrage amendment, which was No. 1, there was
proposition No. 3, which all the political parties wanted carried and
to which no one objected. It could easily be found by all illiterates
as it contained more lines of printing, yet so difficult was it to
teach ignorant men to vote "Yes" on that one proposition that, despite
the fact that orders had gone forth to all the state that No. 3 was to
be carried, it barely squeezed through.

In Pennsylvania there are no emblems to distinguish the tickets and
on the large ballot the suffrage amendment was difficult to find by
an untutored voter. In probable consequence Pennsylvania polled the
largest proportional vote for the amendment of any eastern state