The Thames Star. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1912. EDITORIAL. THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 10380, 6 December 1912, Page 4

The Thames Star.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1912. EDITORIAL. THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

OUR MOTTO: Fear of None; Favour to None; Justice to All.

Newi Zealand has not taken great interest, it has been more of an idle curiosity, in the result of the election for the Almerican Presidency, and it was, we believe, the mannier in which Mr Roosevelt took the bit between his teeth and "bolted," together with the sensational shooting incident towards the end of the campaign that quickened the public pulse. However, Dr. Woodrow Wilson has so far been successful in! the multifarious selections and elections, but he has not yet "got there" as the Americans say. It is pointed out that the final election has yet to come, and that all that was done on election day in November was for the voters of tihe United States to cast their votes 'or the candidates. The votes are checked, registered and recorded, first in precincts, then merged in counties, then merged in States, and finally totalled. But this, of course, does not end the process of election). It is nofc outside the bounds of possibility, though highly improbable, that 73r Woodrow Wilaon may ,neve£ tafce the Presidential chair in Congress. On the second Monday in January next the Electoral College will cany uut the final stage of the election. The

eleotors are elected by the popular vote, each State having the same number of ©lectors as it has Senators in Congress. They are supposed to voice the sentiment of the voters of jtjhei Stfates •whicih. they repiieisi©n.t.. casting the entire vote of the State in block. But the Electoral College has not always cast its votes for the candida(tte' who in effect received a majority of the popular vote. In 1876 the Colleigte, by one vote, gave the I iPiie&ideincy of Mb* Hayes, although Mr Tilden had, according to thei count of his opponents, a mlajjority of 252 1,-' 2214 in the popular election. The electors for each State meet in their own State, register their votes for 1 the officers of president and vice-presi-dent, and forward them, signed and siealed, to Washington. There 1 they aa*e openied by the President of the Senate, who is also Vice-President of the United States. The Constitution directs that Be shall open the certificates "in the presence of the Senate and Houso. of 'Representatives,," and , that "the vote sba'll then; be counted." Whether the votes ai'f to bo counted by the 'President of the Senate, by fcii© legislators, or by President and legislators joint-lv liias been a. miatter for hot dispute in the past, but a statute w;as enacted in 1887 which seems designed to meet any contingencies that may arise in trie matter of dounting;. Altogether the election of President te a decidedly complicated process and while Americans may boast of fche United States asi the' land of the free, we 1 prefer the good old Bi-itish style where the straight out vote as recorded at the 'ballot box carries the day. Some Americans who visited New' Zealand lately condemned the system, of election in vogue as a neprfesc^itation of minorities, and while admitting that there is something in the contention, American experience has not so far-proved that, the system in voptie • there possesses any ndvn.nfcages, but on the contrary has many defects.