VOTING BY TICKET.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1920, Page 4

VOTING BY TICKET.

The recent PreskL.itial election in America has again drawn attention to the peculiar method in vogue there —the method of indirect voting, or voting according to ticket as dictated by the political machine, which is all-powerful in the United States. Theoretically the object of all systems of election is to obtain the choice of the largest number of the electors, but in practice, so far as State elections are concerned, it is the pajty machine which is the dominant factor. America has this advantage over most other countries in that there, ire only two main parties—Democrats and Republicans—for, so far, Labor has not become a serious competitor for political power. The closer the working of the American system for electing the head of the State is examined, the clearer becomes the conviction that it fails in achieving the object for which it was devised—giving effect to the will of the people. As the matter is one that has a direct bearing 011 the question of proportional representation it should be of interest to the people of the Dominion. The component States in America select a varying number of delegates to the Electoral College, and it is these delegates who vote directly for the president. The two points deserving particular attention in the working of this system are: (1) That the voting power of the States differs; (2) Tlmt it is possible for a President to be elected by a minority vote. To illustrate (his point it is only necessary to explain that although the Hepublicans in New York may be in a slight majority, by votjng according to the "ticket" they carry tiie whole of the forty-five electoral votes from that State, while in Texas, with a great Democratic majority, the partly can only muster twenty votes—the whole of the quota to which that State is entitled , In France, the system is a compromise between direct and inj direct voting. For the purpose of electing a President the two Houses—the Senate and the Chamber of Deputiessit in National Assemblv and select the President by vote. The Senate is elected by delegates chosen by tJie municipal councils and the Senators, Deputies councillors-general, and district councillors of the Departments, while tho Chamber of Deputies is elected bv universal sullrage. This system appears to contain manifest advantages over the American, though it must be remembered that 'the number and strength of I political parties in France is out of all ! proportion to those in the United States, i where ths political l 'juachin»" lias been

raised to a fine art After all it is the interests of parties aixl not of the people that dominate the situation. So long as the result reflects the will of the majority oF the electors, the system does not matter, but it should be the aim of all democratic countries to make it impossible for minorities to rule.