As the
prejudice weakens, the arguments it employs for some time increase
in strength; since, the plan being better understood, its inevitable
inconveniences, and the circumstances which militate against its at
once producing all the benefits it is intrinsically capable of, come
to light along with its merits. But of all the objections, having
any semblance of reason, which have come under my notice, there is not
one which had not been foreseen, considered, and canvassed by the
supporters of the plan, and found either unreal or easily
surmountable.
The most serious, in appearance, of the objections may be the most
briefly answered; the assumed impossibility of guarding against fraud,
or suspicion of fraud, in the operations of the Central Office.
Publicity, and complete liberty of inspecting the voting papers
after the election, were the securities provided; but these, it is
maintained, would be unavailing; because, to check the returns, a
voter would have to go over all the work that had been done by the
staff of clerks. This would be a very weighty objection, if there were
any necessity that the returns should be verified individually by
every voter. All that a simple voter could be expected to do in the
way of verification would be to check the use made of his own voting
paper; for which purpose every paper would be returned, after a proper
interval, to the place from whence it came.
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