been adopted, the principle, of course,
being a ballot on which all candidates' names are printed, with or
without party designations, and against which the voter makes his
mark. In their practical working, however, these laws depend on the
simplicity of the form; thus, it works very well in Massachusetts,
where the form is simple and the ballot short, and very badly in New
York, where the contrary is the case. Opinion is pretty well united
on the advisability of the Australian ballot, the only remaining
difference being as to whether any party designations should be
printed. Most practical politicians desire that the name "Republican"
or "Democrat," or even that some party symbol like a star or flag,
should be affixed, which can be understood by the most illiterate
voter; also, that the voter should be allowed to make one cross
opposite the word "Republican" or "Democrat" when he means to vote the
whole of the ticket, "in order to give each candidate the benefit of
the full party strength." On the other side it is argued that all
voting should be intelligent and never blind, and that if the voter
does not take the trouble to mark all the names on the ballot it
sufficiently indicates that he is indifferent as to some of the
candidates even of his own party, and that his votes for them should,
therefore, not be counted.

The most significant of modern developments in legislation concerning
voting is the new practice of recognizing by law political parties,
and of regulating by law the mode of their nominations. The old idea
was that the law took no notice of anything that happened until
election day, when it did regulate the mode of voting and counting
the votes; the law was supposed to be blind to political parties; the
persons elected were merely the successful candidates. But first
began the tendency to recognize parties in "bi-partisan" boards and
commissions; it became very usual to provide that State officials
should, when the office was held, or the function performed, by more
than one person, be elected or appointed from different parties. This,
of course, works very well when there are but two parties, as indeed
is usually the case. And now of late years the practice has grown up
of regulating political matters _before_ the election day. Direct
primaries, caucuses regulated by law, the mode of nomination,
nomination papers to be filed in a certain manner, the compulsory
service of men as candidates unless they