=Source.=--_The Times_, September 14, 1872.
Usually an election day here has been a day of great political tumult
and uproar. But to-day the general aspect of things was changed. When
the poll opened the principal streets of the town were almost as
quiet as usual. At the polling-booths, thirty-seven in number, there
was very little crowding, and generally the town seemed to have got
up no earlier than usual this morning, though in an extreme state of
mystification. At each polling-booth there was erected, under contract
with the Corporation, the compartments prescribed by the Act to secure
privacy to the voter while marking his ballot paper. These compartments
consisted of an open movable box, with four stalls or recesses, each
supplied with a small ledge to serve as a desk, and placed back to
back, so that four voters might be engaged in marking their papers at
one and the same time. The size of the partition prevents a voter from
overlooking his neighbour either at his side or in front of him. Each
of these compartments was supplied with a pencil, secured by a string,
like those in the telegraphic departments at the post-office.
The Conservatives appeared to be infinitely more active with their
agents at the various polling-booths than the Liberals, and both tried
to get an insight into the way affairs were going by means of tickets.
Each elector had sent to him previously--the Conservatives ostensibly
began this and the Liberals followed them--a ticket with a request that
he would vote for Holker or German, as the case might be, and that
after voting he would, if a Conservative, hand it over to the agent
who would be at the door, and if a Liberal, would give it up at the
nearest committee-room. The Conservative agents had blue cards fastened
in front of their hats, and upon each card there was printed the words
“Conservative agent.” As a rule two of them stood close to the door of
egress at each polling-booth. In one instance a couple of them managed
to get into a booth, but being detected by a Liberal, were ordered out.
In other instances the Conservative agents were upon the premises of
the polling-booth, and at one of the booths a couple were seen in the
back-yard within a foot of the door leading out of it, their object
being to ask for the tickets of the voters as they left the room. The
Liberals did not push themselves so keenly within the precincts of
the booths, but seemed to be anxious to get as near as they could.
In the end the ticket system got thoroughly confused--Liberals, in
mistake, gave their tickets to the Conservative agents; Conservatives
gave them to those on the Liberal side, so that it became impossible
accurately to test what was being done by the plan. The voting went
on rather slowly; four voters were admitted at a time to each booth,
and after receiving their papers proceeded to the “stalls” behind
the officials, marked their papers, and then returned, putting them
into a large sealed tin box, with a narrow slit at the top, as they
passed out. The general business was very quietly transacted; there
was even a dead calm about it at times. Some of the working men, of
the ordinary labouring class, seemed to have no proper idea at all of
the Ballot; odd ones of them would, on entering the booth, ask the
constable at the door where they had to tell the name of the candidate
they wanted to vote for, and others were very stupid in their folding
up of the voting-papers. They crumpled them up occasionally or doubled
them in such a way as to hide the stamp on the back, This bungling was
chiefly the work of the more illiterate classes. One or two cases of
personations were early reported, but the guilty parties made a clear
escape. There has been more of novelty than of difficulty in working
the Ballot here; and excepting the cases of stupidity mentioned, no
awkwardness or hitch has occurred. As the morning advanced the booths
became thronged, and at noon the work of vote-recording was at its
greatest pitch of activity; but the increase in it then in no way
deranged the general mechanism adopted. From about eleven o’clock
in the forenoon till five this afternoon the streets have been very
crowded, the bulk of the people being of the working-class order. Even
the most sapient and experienced could not tell which way the wind
was blowing--could not tell whether German or Holker was ahead. There
was, however, a very general impression among Conservatives that their
candidate was first, and a very strong apprehension on the part of
the Liberals that this really was the case. Bills, etc., professing
to show the state of the poll were occasionally put out, but only the
most stupid placed any reliance upon them. Cheers and counter-cheers
have been heard in the streets as the respective candidates and
their friends have been noticed passing along them. There have been
no displays of colours, no bands of music, and even in St. John’s
ward an astonishing degree of order and sobriety has been observable.
The Ballot, whatever it may not effect, has clearly from to-day’s
experience conduced in a striking degree to the general sobriety and
good order of the people. There is much talk about bribery and some
about personation. At 8.30 the result of the election was announced
by a card at the Town Hall. The figures were--Holker, 4,542; German,
3,824; showing, as there are 10,214 eligible voters on the register,
that 1,848 had not recorded their votes.
“ALABAMA” ARBITRATION AWARD (1872).
=Source.=--_The Times_, September 16, 1872.