Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1877 — How the Voting is Done in Paris. [ARTICLE]

How the Voting is Done in Paris.

Toward noon I inet a friend at the Case do la Paix and went wjth him to his voting place. It was against the law for any but voters to go in; but my friend took the responsibility of seeing me through. We walked up to the Rue de la Fayette and turned into the buildings called the Cite d’Antin. There was no sign of a crowd or of excitement. Near the door which led to the voting-room stood half-a-dozen men with their hands full of tickets. They wore no badges or ribbons, and were innocent of those graceful aprons with which our fellow-citizens sometimes decorate their manly forms on similar occasions. They did not come to greet us, but stood in the way as if ready to hand tickets rather than solicitious. We each took a ticket of both kinds—large, square papers, bearing the names respectively of E. Ilaguin, the Conservative and official candidate, and of tlie late President of the Ghamber, Jules Grevy. We were in Mi Thiers’ arrondissement. No one questioned us as we advanced or came hurriedly forward, armed with a took and pencil, to ask our names. No banners invited votes from us and admiration from the gamins of the neighborhood. No stickers tempted the “unreliable” and “disloyal ” into the paths of them that scratch. All was peace and quiet and great decorum. We traversed an entry and entered a room. Three or four well-appearing men stood near a table atfwhich another sat. My friend handed his paper—“ carte (felecieur" —to the sitting individual, who examined it critically and compared the signature on it with one which my friend then wrote in the book. This done the ticket was stamped, and we walked into the next room and took our places in the line. About a dozen men stood in single file, advancing slowly, paper in hand. Behind a long table sat three or four individuals with books, a huge square box and a pile of cut corners of electors’ cards in front of them. The voter advanced in his turn ‘and gave his name. The books was examined, the name and number found—the number

written on the ballot—the ballot deposited in the box, a corner cut off of the elector’s ticket with a pair of scissors, and we departed with a “ Bonjour, Messieurs." Such is the method of voting. The checks against frauds you see, are many, and I presume there is no such thing as personation or repeating, I was struck with the neatness of the proceeding and with the appearance of those who superintended it officially. From six to six this scene was being enacted all througli France, with a quiet and a decorum that was certainly, admirable. It is quite likely that where improper interference with the ballot begins with us it ends in France. There the “work” is put in effectually before the voter goes to the poll. lam credibly informed that it is elsewhere otherwise. Intimidation beforehand is the French method; mutilation afterward, the American, They believe in the ounce of prevention; we in the pound of cure. They prescribe a “counterirritant” before the attack; we rely on a “ mild alterative?’ afterward. The systems are different, but each admirable of its kind; it is not “ for the likes of me” to say which is the most worthy of a great and enlightened Nation.— Cor. Philadelphia Times. ' ... ; . ; -zz3