Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional Amendment
History
Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional Amendment
Women -- Suffrage -- United States
[Footnote A: Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, West Virginia,
Minnesota, Utah.]
The penalties for bribery range from $5 to $2,000 and from thirty
days' to ten years' imprisonment, but only one state (Ohio) provides
in definite terms for punishment of bribery as a part of the penalty
in an election contest. In most cases proof of bribery does not throw
out the vote of briber or bribed, nor does an action to throw
out purchased votes in contest cases bring with it automatically
punishment of the purchased voter. This omission from the contest
provisions presupposes that these bribery cases would be separate
actions. Thirty-two states in clear terms disfranchise (or give the
Legislature power to disfranchise) bribers and bribed, but few make
provision for the method of actually enforcing the law, and upon
inquiry the Secretary of State of many of these states reported
that, so far as he knew, no man had ever been disfranchised for
this offense. This was true of states which have been notorious for
political corruption.
From Ohio alone has evidence been found of the actual enforcement
of the disfranchisement provision. In this state nearly 1,800 bribed
voters of Adams County were disfranchised in 1910 for scandalous
and well-remembered corruption but in 1915 they were restored to
citizenship. These cases reveal a disgraceful provision in the Ohio
law, by which the briber is given immunity if he will turn State's
evidence on the bribed; the vote-buyer may purchase votes by the
thousands with perfect safety provided that when suspected he will
deliver up a few of the bought by way of example.
With a vague, uncertain law to define their punishment in most states,
and no law at all in twenty-four states, as a preliminary security,
corrupt opponents of a woman suffrage amendment find many additional
aids to their nefarious acts. A briber must make sure that the bribed
carries out his part of the contract. Whenever it is easy to check
up the results of the bribe, corruption may reign supreme with little
risk of being found out. A study of some of the recent suffrage votes
gives significant food for reflection. It shows how the form, color
and arrangement of the ballot may help the corrupt politician to
organize ignorant voters to do his will. In Georgia and Louisiana no
party names are printed on the official ballot and emblems only are
used. In almost half our states, though the party name is used also,
the emblem is the real guide. New York does not even relegate this
emblem to the top of the column. The emblem is placed before the name
of each candidate, so that the illiterate voter can make no mistake in
recognizing the sign of the machine which controls his vote. Scarcely
more than a dozen states have the headless ballot[A] which makes
it impossible for politicians to make corrupt use of the illiterate
voter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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