Thursday, September 12, 2013

1896 Straw Vote for Women and Ballot Printing in Cortland


Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, October 16, 1896.

WOMEN VOTE FOR PRESIDENT.

   For the first time in the history of this country an opportunity for women to publicly express their choice for president is offered. The method is unique and will result in showing on Nov. 4 just what effect the woman’s vote will have on national affairs.

    A manufacturer who has business relations with most of the prominent newspapers in the United States, proposes the plan as follows:

    All women over 18 are entitled to one vote. The votes by states will be shown in the papers on every Wednesday and Saturday until Nov. 4. Women are requested to read more than one side of the question and act upon their own judgment. Write the name of candidate on a postal card and write your own name and address clearly, also city and state. On the lower left hand corner give the name of a banker or grocer who knows you.

   This precaution is to prevent flooding the mail with fictitious votes. Names unknown to grocer or banker will be thrown out. Be very careful to write clearly and an acknowledgement of the receipt of each vote will be sent to the fair voter. Send the postal to Postum Cereal Food Coffee Co., Battle Creek, Mich. It is urged that every earnest woman will not hesitate to expend a penny to register her preference at this most interesting period of national history.

   This company have a national reputation and pledge their integrity and honor to report the vote exactly as received, without fear or favor. A sworn statement of the final vote polled up to 7 P. M., Nov. 4 will be published Nov. 7 and the vote as it progresses will be shown on every Wednesday and Saturday between now and then.



 
 
GOOD FRIENDS

Keep the Heart of Humanity Warm.

   The following extract from a letter may be published without a breach of courtesy, as it refers to a matter which will interest some readers who have been considering the dismissal of coffee in their families and the adoption of Postum, the health coffee:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.

Postum Cereal Co., Battle Creek, Mich.:

   GENTLEMEN—I am pleased with the sale and the satisfaction given to our customers in the use of Postum Cereal. I did not wish to venture out on this article, as I had no faith in it when first shown me. To my surprise the first case sold readily, and a little estimate shows a sale of 463 packages in 67 days. I am using it in my own home with perfect satisfaction. Since the use of Postum in place of coffee, neither wife nor myself have the old heartburn. Please find enclosed, &c, &c, &c. MARTIN C. GOOSEN.

   A reliable grocer will never offer a cheap or weak imitation of a genuine original article because he happens to make a little extra profit. But it is well to observe that when genuine Postum Cereal coffee is ordered, that you get Postum and not a spurious imitation offered as "just as good."


 

References:
Women’s Suffrage in the United States:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_States
Postum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postum
 

 


Cortland Evening Standard, Wednesday, October 21, 1896.
 

LARGE AS A NEWSPAPER.


BALLOT TO BE USED AT THE COMING ELECTION.
Over 43,000 Ballots to be Used in Cortland County Including Amendment Ballots—Some Duties of the County Clerk in Preparation for Election.
 
   The STANDARD has received from the secretary of state a specimen of the official ballot to be used at the coming election. The ballot is 17 by 23 inches, the size of a large newspaper. It contains eight party columns, but, since no independent nominations have been filed, the ballot which will be used in Cortland county will contain but seven columns. At the head of each column is the party emblem, and a circle for receiving the cross [X] which denotes a straight ticket.
 
   The Republican emblem is an eagle, the Democratic, a five pointed star, the National Democratic, a whip under full sail, the Prohibition, a fountain, the Socialist Labor, an uplifted arm holding a hammer, and the People's, a clover leaf.
 
   The seventh column is for names which are not printed on the ballot, but for whom the elector desires to vote. The ballot should be marked with a lead pencil having black lead, and any other mark than the cross mark used in voting, or any erasure, invalidates the vote. In voting a straight ticket a cross is made within the circles above one of the party columns, and to vote a split ticket a like mark is made opposite the names of those for whom the elector wishes to vote.
 
   The STANDARD job rooms are now busy in printing the ballots for use upon Nov. 3 in this county. Everything about the ballot is prescribed by law, including the quality and weight of the paper, the style and size of type to be used, the spacing and arrangement of the names upon the ticket. The printing of an election ballot is one of the most particular jobs that a printer ever undertakes, for an error of any kind upon the ballot would invalidate the election.
 
   In the preparation of the ballots the printer consults with the county clerk concerning any point about which he may be in doubt, and where there is any question as to the interpretation of the law the printer always yields to the county clerk for he gets his instructions from the state and is alone responsible to the state for the correctness of the ballots. The county clerk examines every proof and puts his "O. K.'' over his signature upon each proof before the printing is begun. A copy of the election law is always at hand for reference as a court of last resort. Inasmuch as the attention of County Clerk Palmer is so much taken up with the other numerous duties connected with that office the matter of the ballots is referred to Deputy County Clerk H. T. Bushnell, who was previously county clerk, and who has had much experience with the preparation of the ballots in former years, and who by reason of his experience and careful study of the law is probably the best informed man upon the matter of ballots in Cortland county.
 
   For use this year Cortland county requires in its twenty-nine election districts 17,300 official ballots and 4,325 sample ballots, making a total of 21,625 regular ballots. There is a constitutional amendment to be voted for this year, for which just as many more ballots will be required, making 43,250 ballots in all that are to be prepared and furnished. For this nearly 1,700 pounds of paper will be required.
 
   The actual printing of the ballots is always a matter of haste, for there is continually a possibility of addition to the ticket through independent nominations up to fourteen days before election when the secretary of state certifies to the names to be used upon the ballot and his certification is filed with the county clerk. After that time no name can be taken from the ballot. Even if a candidate dies his name must be printed, though if another nomination is made in his place and the proper certificate is filed with the county clerk that official is authorized to prepare a paster ballot which he must deliver to the inspectors of election in the districts affected by the change. The inspectors pass the pasters over to the poll clerks and the poll clerks are required to affix them to the official ballot in the proper place before passing the ballots out to the voters.
 
   The ballots must all be completed by the printer and delivered by him to the county clerk in time for that official to get them ready for delivery to the several town clerks on the Saturday before election which this year falls upon Oct. 31.
 
   The county clerk under the amended law is required to deliver a variety of articles to the town clerks. Instead of his delivering the ballots at the several towns as formerly the town clerks now have to come to the county clerk's office to get what they need. The law prescribes what shall be delivered to each town clerk. The official ballots are put up in a manila box, wrapped in a manila paper and the package is sealed and labeled. Another similar package contains the sample ballots, a third package contains the official amendment ballots and a fourth package the sample amendment ballots. In addition, each town clerk in this county will receive packages containing the following: Four distance markers, twelve cards of instructions, two poll books, three blanks for inspectors’ return, three ballot clerks' return sheets, two tally sheets, fifteen pens, eight penholders, two bottles of ink, eight pencils, eight blotters and one stick of sealing wax.
 
   There are also envelopes for sending the returns back to the county clerk's office on the day after election. These packages are not to be opened until after the polls are opened on the morning of election and everybody is in his place when the seals are broken by the inspectors of election, who deliver the ballots to the ballot clerks and the other articles to the poll clerks or to those who may have need for them during the election.
 
   It is apparent from this that the county clerk's office will for a few days before election be a very busy place and the utmost care must be used by the one in charge that no mistakes are made in the putting up and delivering of the several packages of ballots to the proper parties.


Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, November 6, 1896.

RETURNS SEALED. TO BE OPENED AND CANVASSED NEXT TUESDAY.

The New Law Relative to Delivery and Filing of Election Returns — Officials

Were Prompt in this County—The Power and Duty of the Board of Supervisors Explained.

   The sealed election returns for the county of Cortland were filed in the county clerk's office Wednesday. In reply to a reporter's question as to whether the returns from all the districts were in, Deputy Clerk H. T. Bushnell replied that such was the case.

   The chairmen of the boards of inspectors in each district are the persons authorized by law to file the returns. As soon as the canvass was completed Tuesday night, the chairman of each board made oral proclamation of the result in detail. The election law then provides that "the original statement of canvass and the certified copies thereof shall be securely and separately sealed with sealing wax in an envelope properly indorsed on the outside thereof by the inspectors, and shall be kept inviolate by the officers or board with whom they are filed until delivered, together with the sealed packages of void and protested ballots, to the county or city board of canvassers."

   The section of the law which relates to the delivery and filing of the election papers, directs that one of the sealed certified copies shall be delivered to the supervisor of the town in which the election is held, if outside of a city, or to one of the supervisors of the city. In the absence of the supervisor it is to be delivered to an assessor of the town or city. One certified copy of the original statement of the canvass, the poll books and one of the tally sheets must be forthwith filed with the town or city clerk, as the case may be. The original statement, with the original ballot returned [sic] prepared by the ballot clerk attached, the sealed package of void and protested ballots, the record as to challenged and assisted voters and the sealed packages of detached stubs and unvoted ballots, and one of the tally sheets shall, within twenty-four hours after the completion of the canvass, be filed by the chairman of the board of inspectors with the county clerk of the county in which the election district is situated.

   The new election law increased the work of the inspectors to some extent, but it will also add greatly to the supervisors' work in session as a board of canvassers. The supervisors will meet next Tuesday as a board of canvassers. Heretofore the returns have been filed unsealed, at the county clerk's office, and during the week preceding the meeting of the board, the county clerk or his assistants have tabulated and copied upon canvassing sheets all the figures, so that when the board met the returns were ready for verification and footing.

   This work of copying and preparing the sheets, which in itself entails days of labor, must now be done after the board meets and the sealed returns have been opened. And section 181 of the law provides that "if, at first meeting, all such original statements of the result of the canvass of the votes cast at each election in all the election districts in the county shall not be produced before the board, it shall adjourn to some convenient hour of the same or the next day, and the county clerk shall, by special messenger or otherwise, obtain such missing original statements if possible, otherwise, he shall procure one of the certified copies thereof in time to be produced before such board at its next meeting."

   When the returns from every election district in the county are before the board, and not before, it can begin canvassing. Heretofore, the canvass began with what returns were on hand when the board met—and invariably some were missing. The board is empowered to summon before its inspectors of election from districts where merely clerical errors have been made, and the inspectors shall meet and make "such correction as the facts in the case require, but such inspectors shall not change nor alter any decision made before by them." The board may adjourn from day to day, not exceeding three days in all, to receive such corrected statements.

 
 
Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, October 19, 1896.
REAL ESTATE SOLD.
Property of the Hitchcock Mfg. Co. Bid in for Samuel Keator.
   The real estate belonging to the Hitchcock Mfg. Co. was on Saturday sold by the receivers, Messrs. C. B. Hitchcock of Cortland and James Devine of Syracuse. The property was all bid in by Hon. O. J. Kellogg for Samuel Keator, who held liens on nearly all of it. The large brick building in Elm-st., the wooden building and two dwelling houses west of the railroad tracks all sold for $150, subject to liens of $42,500; the foundry in Port Watson-st. bought $150, subject to a lien of $22,000; the Quinlan house in Pomeroy-st. sold for $100 with a lien of $874, and all the interest the company had in 880 acres of land in the town of Preble was bid in for $100, the entire property selling for $500, subject to liens of about $66,000.
 



 

 
 

 

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