the local elections above referred to, and in others, may here be properly presented. When tickets containing one and a half votes to each of two candidates are to be counted by election officers, the fraction may be disregarded in the first instance, and the tickets only scored upon the tally lists, the sum of the fractions being added at the end of the score, as already explained in another place. In a given case of forty such tickets polled, the score will stand as follows: If in addition to tickets containing fractional votes, a candidate shall have polled for him tickets containing whole votes alone, the latter may be scored separately above the line containing the fractional votes, and be carried out and added at the right. Thus if he shall receive, in addition to votes scored as above, twenty whole votes unconnected with fractions, the score or tally may be made as follows: THE TH THU John Jones, 1 TH TH TH .20 =40+20=60-80 votes. Other modes of keeping the tally lists may be resorted to at the discretion of election officers, but those above are given because they have some sanction from practice, and because by their use economy space is consulted in the making up of returns. of NOMINATIONS TO OFFICE. Good plans for nominating candidates to office are almost as important, and deserve consideration almost as much, as good plans for electing them. In this place it is therefore proposed to notice two recent plans of nomination which have been applied in Pennsylvania to the selection of nominees for county offices. They are both popular-vote plans, and the purpose of both is to avoid the evils which ordinarily attend upon representative conventions. The one is known as the "Crawford County System," and the other as the "Columbia County Plan;" so named from the counties in which they respectively originated and were first put in force. By the Crawford County plan, the voters at primary elections vote directly for candidates for nomination; from each election district a return judge conveys the return of his district to a joint meeting of return judges for the county; in the joint meeting of those judges the returns are cast up and candidates highest in vote for each office are declared the nominees. Of all bad plans, accepted in recent practice, this is unquestionably the worst, and yet to men of little reflection and narrow experience, it seems fair, reasonable, judicious and just. Hence it has been adopted in many counties in place of the old convention plan. The main objections to it are these: That it produces, inevitably, expensive contests for nomination; that it tends strongly to fraudulent voting and fraudulent returns; that it makes success very often dependent upon intrigue between candidates whereby voters are deceived; that it shamefully disregards and puts open contempt upon the doctrine that the majority shall rule; that it leads to embarrassment of voters and to blunders in voting by reason of ignorance among voters of the relative strength of candidates, and lastly, that it substitutes a feeble body of return judges (who hardly bear a representative character) for a regular, strong convention, for the transaction of other party business beside the making of nominations. Of course it multiplies candidates, exasperates popular passions, and degrades the whole tone of party action.* But the Columbia County plan of nomination is a popular-vote plan of a different character, and challenges attention and respect, because it retains *The working of the "Crawford County system" as a nominating plan was well shown in the Democratic nominations for Northumberland County, in 1871. It was in force there, at that time, and exhibited some of its worst features. Hundreds of false or unpolled votes were reported to control results, and were, almost of necessity, received and counted at the meeting of the return judges; for one imperfection of the plan is that it provides no means for the investigation and correction of the frauds which it invites. Upon the face of the returns of votes for the respective candidates for the several offices, at the primary elections, it further appeared that each of the nominees (save one) had less than onehalf the total vote and one of them less than one-third. Analyzing the vote we get the following exhibit: President Judge. For nominee, 1408, for other candidates, 2399. Representative. For nominee, 1585, for other candidates, 2275. Associate Judge.-For nominee, 1349, for other candidates, 2219. Treasurer. For nominee, 983, for other candidates, 2461. Commissioner. For nominee, 1273, for other candidates, 2074. This is indeed minority representation with a vengeance! But it was unavoidable under the plurality rule. It only remains to state, that the whole ticket set up in this very objectionable way was beaten, and that the plan of nomination which produced the disaster was forthwith abolished, and the convention plan restored with proportional representation of districts. the feature of a convention well constituted for work, and because it applies the principle of reformed voting very thoroughly to the nomination of candidates. The rules which embody and give form to this plan are not supposed to be perfect-in fact, it is evident that they might be improved in construction, and made much more comprehensive and complete-but as the first formal attempt to secure proportional representation in a nominating body chosen by popular votes, they may claim a place in this volume, and justify the comments and exposition which will follow them. RULES OF NOMINATION IN COLUMBIA COUNTY:ADOPTED DEC. 26, 1870. "I. The annual county convention shall be held at the Court House in Bloomsburg on the second Tuesday of August, at one o'clock, P. M., and the delegate elections shall be held on the Saturday before at the places of holding the general elections in the several election districts, between the hours of three and seven o'clock in the afternoon. "II. The representation of districts in county convention shall be in proportion to the party vote of each, as cast at the most recent election for Governor, but the whole number of delegates shall not exceed seventy nor be less than fifty-four, and no district shall be allowed less than two or more than four delegates. "III. Until the next election for Governor, delegates shall be allowed to districts upon a ratio of sixty voters for a delegate, allowance being made for the largest fractions of a ratio. "IV. The Standing Committee shall, whenever necessary, make an apportionment of delegates to the several districts under these rules, and publish it, together with the rules, in the party newspapers of the County, at least two weeks before each annual convention. "V. Voters at delegate elections may give their votes to a smaller number of candidates than the whole number to be elected in the manner provided in the fourth section of the Bloomsburg act of 4th of March, 1870. "VI. The delegate elections shall be by ballot, and shall be held and conducted by a judge and clerk, and the said officers shall keep a list of voters, and tally of votes counted, to be sent by them to the Convention with their certificate of the result of the election. "VII. All cases of disputed seats in Convention shall be disposed of openly by vote after hearing the respective claimants and their evidence. 66 VIII. All delegates must reside in the districts they represent. In case of an absent delegate he may depute another to serve in his stead. "IX. The voting in Convention shall be open, and any two members may require the yeas and nays on any question pending." Rule 10 authorizes special Conventions to be called by the Standing Committee. Rule 11 provides that all County nominations and appointments of district conferees and delegates to State conventions shall be made in County Convention. "XII. The Standing Committee shall consist of one member from each election district, who shall be elected by the people at the delegate elections, |