clerks, gave the officers "an absolute control of the result of any and every election, for only such ballots as these clerks choose to deliver to voters can be cast or counted."[1] Governor Hill declared that he was willing to have the state print official ballots in order to guarantee a sufficient supply for the convenience of electors, but he declared that "that power should be concurrent with parties, candidates, and individuals." To the argument that the law would enable election officers, by neglecting their duty, to disfranchise the electors, it was responded that it was no defense to a law to argue that officers might be guilty of misfeasance or nonfeasance. If they are guilty, they may be punished in damages and also as criminals.[2]
Seventhly, Governor Hill claimed that the proposed law was unconstitutional on the following grounds: (a) "that it embarrasses, hinders, and impedes electors in exercising their constitutional right of suffrage"; (b) that for the blind and illiterate voters "it destroys the secrecy of the ballot by compelling an avowal of their votes as a condition of exercising the right."[3]
- ↑ New York Herald, May 14, 1889.
- ↑ Post, Election Reform, p. 7.
- ↑ For an able answer to Governor Hill's objections, see L. F. Post, Election Reform, a pamphlet in the University of Chicago library. A discussion of the constitutionality of these points will be given in chapter vi. Governor Hill's message is discussed from his own point of view in the New York Sun for May 23, 1888.
