Americans Go To Polls Today

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29973, 7 November 1962, Page 17

Americans Go To Polls Today

(N-ZP A.-Reuter—Copyright)

NEW YORK, November 6. ' Fifty 7 million Americans go to the polls today to decide on the men and women who will help govern them for the next two, five or six years.

From Maine and Florida, to Alaska and Hawaii, the electorate will pull down levers on voting machines or mark ballot papers to decide the make-up of the eighty-eighth Congress.

Thirty-nine Senators and the 435 members of the House of Representatives are being elected, as well as 35 State Governors. Thousands of minor offices are also at stake. The entire House of Representatives is elected anew in every even-numbered year. One-third of the 100-member Senate is elected at the same time for six-year terms. Governors generally serve two or four years. The consensus as campaigning came to an end late last night or early today (some television exhortations went on into the morning hours) was that the Democratic Party of President Kennedy would retain control of both Houses of Congress and that the opposition Republicans would make gains in the gubernatorial contests, which could produce potential candidates for the 1964 Presidential elections.

Voting places, set up in schools, shops, church basements and other convenient locations, opened before dawn in most States and will close after dark. The latest closing is in Alaska, at 7 a.m. G.M.T. on Wednesday. The key contests are:

California.—The 7,500.000 voters in this fast-growing State, soon to be the biggest in the nation, are deciding a bitter fight for the governorship between the Republican former Vice-President, Mr Richard Nixon, who lost narrowly to Mr Kennedy in the Presidential race two years ago. and the Democratic Governor. Mr Edmund (“Pat”) Brown, who is seeking a second four-year term. An inde]>endent State-wide poll of registered voters published on the election eve made Mr Nixon the underdog. It showed 48 per cent, for the re-election of Mr Brown, 41 per cent, for Mr Nixon and 11 per cent, undecided. A defeat for Mr Nixon could mark the end of the national political trail for him and would certainly end any hopes that he might again be a Presidential candidate.

New York.—The millionaire Governor. Mr Nelson Rockefeller, potentially a 1964 Republican candidate, campaigned more against voter apathy than against his Democratic opponent, the littleknown Mr Robert Morgenthau. Virtually no-one except the Democrats themselves, who predicted victory by 100,000 votes, thought Mr Morgentfhau. a political novice, could win. The Republicans predict a Rockefeller victory by 800,000 to 1.0C0.000 votes. Mr Rockefeller four years ago defeated Mr Averell Harriman by 573,000 votes, but he •will have to do better against Mr Morgen thru to solidify his claim to his party's top nomination two years hence. The record plurality in a New York governorship contest was that of 847,439. piled up by Herbert Lehman (Democrat) in 1932.

The Right-wing Conservative Party, formed this year in protest aigainst Mr Rockefeller’s liberalism, is also in the ballot with a candidate for the governorship. But the Rockefeller group is confident it will not significantly affect the outcome.

Michigan. This State, whose governorship has been in Democratic hands for 14 years, could project another Republican Into the national scene if Mr George Romney, the man who made the Rambler car the salvation of American Motors Corporation, is successful in his bid against the incumbent Derno-

cratic Governor. Mr John Swainson. seeking a second two-year term A state-wide poll by the "Detroit News” indicated this week that Mr Romney was in the lead, but that Mr Swainson. a supporter of the Kennedy Administration, was creeping up steadily. Pennsylvania.— The interest in this huge Eastern State is focused on two major races. One is between the liberal, Democratic Senator. Joseph Clark, who is seeking another six-year Senate term, and Mr Jems van Zandt, a Republican conservative who hopes to step up from the House of Representatives. The other is the contest between a liberal Democrat. Mr Richardson Dilworth, and a self-described “modern Republican." Mr William Scranton, an outgoing House member. Massachusetts.— lt will be considered a gigantic upset in the home State of the President if his younger brother, Edward Kennedy, fails to win the Senate seat

the President held until his 1960 election to the highest office In the land.

The Republican Senate candidate is Mr George Cabot Lodge, who is. at 35. five years older Ulan his Democratic opponent Rated strictly an outsider is the independent Senate candidate. Mr H. Stuart Hughes, who campaigned on a peace plaitfomi. President Kennedy flew to Boston last night to vote early today for his brother and other Democratic candidates. The President had already sent in an absentee ballot and when the White House announced that he had left to vote, in person, a rc. porter asked jokingly: “You mean he's going to vote twice?” The White House Press Secretary quipped back, recalling an adage from the “bad old days” of politics: “Vote early and often .** Then he made it clear for the record that Mr Kennedy had withdrawn His absentee ballot.