Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1899 — Voting By Machinery. [ARTICLE]

Voting By Machinery.

A town election at Irvington, an Indianapolis suburb, Monday was the first in the State in which a voting machine was used, and the result was highly satisfactory. The election board gave the Turner Voting Machine Company a signed statement that it took only nine minutes to determine the result of tbe election after the polk closed, that the machine was entirely practical and that the election board recommended it for general use. Those who were not familar with the working were able to vote after reading the instructions once, and but one man voted diffently than he had intended. The first eight votes were cast in two minutes. To vote a straight ticket a large button at the top of the ticket was pressed down. To vote a mixed ticket the button in front of the name of each candidate it was desired to vote for was pressed down. A vote cast for one candidate for an office automatically locked the keys for all other candidates for that office. When the voting was completed the inspector pulled a crank, which rang a bell and automatically registered the yote. A counting device added the votes as they were cast, so that when the election was Closed the totak were found regktered.