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The Presidential Short Ballot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Spencer D. Albright
Spencer D. Albright
Affiliation:
Reed College
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Extract

The term “presidential short ballot” is applied to the ballot form in which the names of candidates for presidential electors are omitted and only the names of the candidates for president or for president and vice-president appear. The vote for the party presidential candidates on the ticket is a vote for the party electors whose names are filed with the secretary of state. The voter may feel that he is voting directly for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates; actually, he is voting for the electoral candidates of the party represented by his favored candidate for the presidency.

This shortened ballot form is the result of three developments: (1) provision for a group vote for the electoral candidates of each party; (2) the addition at the head of the ticket of the names of the presidential candidates, whether the electoral candidates are voted on as individuals or as a group; and (3) introduction of the voting machine. Each of these developments started near the turn of the century.

Type
American Government and Politics
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 34 , Issue 5 , October 1940 , pp. 955 - 959
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1940

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References

1 Laws of Massachusetts, 1892, ch. 279. Ludington, A. C., American Ballot Laws, 1888–1910 (New York State Library, 1911)Google Scholar, surveys early ballot legislation.

2 Laws of Minnesota, 1901, ch. 109.

3 Laws of Kansas, 1807, ch. 129; Laws of Wisconsin, 1901, ch. 457.

4 Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Texas.

5 Laws of Maryland, 1918, ch. 51.

6 Laws of Nevada, 1929, ch. 44: “Nothing in this act shall be construed to permit the throwing out of any ballot because the elector has marked X after the names of such candidates for president and vice-president, though no space has been placed for such mark.” The voting square was added in Laws, 1939, ch. 171.

7 At present, 18 states print the names of the electoral candidates as a group, accompanied by the names of the presidential candidates: Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming. Of these, Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont also print a voting square beside the name of each electoral candidate. Since voting machines are used in all polling places in New York and Rhode Island, the provision of the voting machine law omitting the names of electoral candidates supersedes the provision governing the paper ballot.

8 Laws of Iowa, 1900, ch. 37; Acts of Indiana, 1901, p. 591; Laws of New Jersey, 1902, ch. 205; Laws of Illinois, 1903, p. 179.

9 Connecticut (Acts, 1903, ch. 207); Colorado (Acts, 1905, ch. 101); Nebraska (Laws, 1905, ch. 67); Wisconsin (Laws, 1907, ch. 583); New Hampshire (Laws, 1913, ch. 225); Oregon (Laws, 1913, ch. 337); and Washington (Laws, 1913, p. 180). Of these, Colorado, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Oregon have repealed their voting machine laws.

10 Laws of Nebraska, 1917, art. 1964, sec. 26.

11 Laws of Iowa, 1919, ch. 86, sec. 6.

12 Aylesworth, Leon C., “The Presidential Short Ballot,” in this Review, Vol. 24 (1930), p. 967.Google Scholar

13 Laws of Wisconsin, 1925, ch. 250; Laws of Illinois, 1927, p. 450; Laws of Nebraska, 1927, ch. 105.

14 Acts of Michigan, 1929, no. 306; Laws of Ohio, 1929, sec. 4785–107.

15 Acts of Pennsylvania, 1931, no. 216; Laws of Texas, 1931, ch. 186.

16 From an unpublished letter of Attorney-General James V. Allred to Secretary of State Jane Y. McCallum, Sept. 26, 1932.

17 Acts of Massachusetts, 1932, ch. 35; Laws of Connecticut, 1933, ch. 67, sec. 165; Laws of Missouri, 1933, p. 225; North Carolina Supplement, 1933, ch. 165; and Laws of Washington, 1935, sec. 3, p. 46.

18 Laws of Indiana, 1933 (Feb. 28), ch. 1, sec. 29–112; Laws, 1933 (Mar. 2), ch. 92, p. 666. The point was confirmed by Mr. Fred C. Gause, member of the Indiana State Board of Election Commissioners, in a letter dated Nov. 14, 1939.

19 Statutes of California, 1937, ch. 266; Laws of Indiana, 1937, ch. 61; Laws of Maryland, 1937, ch. 95, sec. 64.

20 In 1921, Nebraska repealed its voting machine law, which provided for the omission of electors. North Carolina and Missouri have never enacted voting machine legislation.

21 Laws of New York, 1924, ch. 442, sec. 242, and Laws, 1931, ch. 382. The validity of New York's action in eliminating electors on voting machines was sustained by the supreme court of King's county in Thomas v. Cohen, 262 N. Y. S. 230 (1933). Kallenbach, J. E., “Recent Proposals to Reform the Electoral System,” in this Review, Vol. 30 (1936), p. 924.Google Scholar

22 Laws of New York, 1935, ch. 714, made the use of the machine state-wide (except for the primary election) for the general election of 1938; and Laws of Rhode Island, 1938, ch. 2640, made its use state-wide for all elections.

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