. In
Massachusetts the ballot was small and the suffrage amendment could be
easily picked out by a bribed voter. In Iowa the suffrage ballot was
separate and yellow while the main ballots were white.

In the North Dakota referendum the regular ballot was long and
complicated and the suffrage ballot separate and small. It was easy to
teach the dullest illiterate how to vote "No." It might be said
that it would be equally easy to teach him to vote "Yes." True, but
suffragists never bribe. Both the briber and the illiterate are allies
of the opposition.

A referendum on a non-partisan issue has none of the protection
accorded a party question. Election boards are bi-partisan and each
party has its own machinery, not only of election officials but
watchers and challengers, to see that the opposing party commits no
fraud. The watchfulness of this party machinery, plus an increasingly
vigilant public opinion, has corrected many of the election frauds
which were once common and most elections are now probably free from
all the baser forms of corruption. When a question on referendum is
sincerely espoused by both the dominant parties it has the advantage
of the watchfulness of both party machines and is doubly safeguarded
from fraud. But when such a question has been espoused by no dominant
party it is utterly at the mercy of the worst forms of corruption.
The election officers have even been known to wink at irregularities
plainly committed since it was no affair of theirs. Or, they may even
go further and join in the entertaining game of running in as many
votes against such an amendment as possible. This has not infrequently
been the unhappy experience of suffrage amendments in corrupt
quarters.

Honest election officers, respecting "the will of the majority" as
the sovereign of our nation, would protect honesty in elections,
regardless of their own or their party's views, but unhappily that
high standard is not universal.

Surely, the method of taking the vote and of safeguarding the honesty
of elections should be the most important and fundamental of all
questions in a republic. Such laws ought to be preliminary to all
other laws. Yet as a matter of fact the laxity and ambiguity of
many state election laws and the utter inadequacy of provisions for
enforcement are almost unbelievable. The contemplation of the actual
facts seriously reflects upon the intelligence and good faith of the
successive lawmakers of our land.