ALTRUISTIC EFFORTS TO ENLIGHTEN THE VOTER
A few astute friends of the electorate have perceived that the power
of the extra-legal politocracy rested fundamentally upon the political
ignorance of the voter, especially the political ignorance of the voter
who was an intelligent man and who could render a valuable judgment if
he could have the facts. This idea produced the Independent Voters’
League, which through a small executive committee undertakes to gather
facts and give out information to the voters about candidates for
office. The electorate, of course, should be given information about
all candidates in every election. But such a task is too large and (if
indeed it be possible at all) would require more money than could be
raised by subscription from a comparatively few people. These leagues
therefore, when formed, have devoted all their energies to giving the
voter information about the candidates for a single office. Thus in
Chicago the Municipal Voters’ League informs the electorate in each
ward of the city about the candidates for aldermen and those alone. The
Illinois Legislative Voters’ League gives out information concerning
candidates for the state legislature.
It has been noticeable that of the two the Municipal Voters’ League
has been the more effective. This is due in part at least to the fact
that at the Chicago aldermanic elections the ballot is very short. In
many elections the candidates for the aldermanic office and those alone
appear upon the ballot. Thus the voter’s attention is concentrated upon
the candidate for a single office from a single district. The advice
of the league is, therefore, more easily noted and remembered. On the
other hand, the Legislative Voters’ League attempts to advise the voter
at an election at which are filled state, county, and judicial offices.
The length of the ballot and the number of offices to be filled has
already been indicated by the specimen ballot printed, _ante_, opposite
p. 29. Naturally the advice is lost in the babel of voices which
goes up concerning the candidates for the important local, state, and
national offices to be filled.
The bar primaries as they have been held in Chicago are the weakest
of all these altruistic efforts to inform the voter how to vote. Such
primaries are merely the expression of preferences by the lawyers of
Cook County with respect to the candidates for judicial office. They do
not characterize any candidate or give any facts concerning his record.
Nor is any effort made to promote the election of the men approved at
such bar primary. Where a large number of judges are to be selected
by an electorate of several hundred thousand, the bar primary is very
weak indeed in its function of giving information to the politically
ignorant voter.
Practical experience would seem to indicate that altruistic efforts to
enlighten the political ignorance of the voter who is an intelligent
man, to be effective at all, must consist of non-partisan, direct, and
personal criticisms of candidates’ qualifications and records. Even
then not much can be done unless the election is for a single important
office and the election district is wieldy[6] in size. Whenever the
candidates about whom the voter is to be informed are only four or five
out of two or three hundred running for fifty different offices, the
information and criticism lose much of their force. If the altruistic
effort were directed toward informing the electorate about candidates
for unimportant and inconspicuous offices, not only would funds fail to
be forthcoming, but its voice would be unheeded and unheard. Thus the
limitations upon the effectiveness of the efforts of altruistic voters’
leagues are very definitely fixed.
Of course, newspapers wield a great influence in elections, even when
partisan in the dissemination of news regarding candidates and in their
comments upon the news. But this exhibition of partisanship occurs
largely with reference to the head of the ticket or to candidates
for two or three of the most important offices. The influence of a
newspaper in advising and directing the voter how to vote when he
is ignorant of the qualifications of the candidates and has heard
no public discussion in regard to them, depends upon much the same
considerations as does the influence of the altruistic voters’
league. To be an effective adviser to the voter as to candidates for
subordinate offices, about whom there is no public discussion, a
newspaper must be to some extent at least non-partisan. It must be
direct and explicit in its recommendations and characterization of the
candidates. It must concentrate its efforts on some one point in the
ballot and let everything else go. These rules are as a matter of fact
regularly observed by newspapers. The practice of them very much limits
the actual scope of a newspaper’s power as an adviser and director of
the politically ignorant voter.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] I.e., “one not so large but that the candidate who is willing to
run may be known with a fair degree of ease by the electorate and be
able with the least expense to make a personal canvass” (see chap. xii,
p. 148).