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From Party Tickets to Secret Ballots 231
Having failed to divert popular sentiment for the Australian system, Gorman
and the regular Democratic organization next attempted to use their control
of the
legislature to frustrate it. The senate elections committee put aside the
numerous
Australian bills introduced and reported a "sham bill," which the
Hagerrtoum Mail
declared should have been titled "A bill to protect the Bosses in
suppressing the
voice of the people." This measure, endorsed by Gorman and other regulars
who
had earlier announced their opposition to the Australian system-, provided
for sepa-
rate ballots for each party rather than a blanket ballot. It failed in so
many other
respects to provide for the Australian system that one reporter described
it "as full
of loopholes as a shad seine. "35 Again there was a popular reaction. The
Critic
described the senate committee bill as "a farce and a fraud," and labor
organizations
took the lead in demanding an authentic Australian system. The Knights'
District
Assembly denounced the legislature for considering this "miserable
substitution"
and demanded enactment of their own ballot bill. "Never did public,
sentiment
appeal more unanimously for a law," concluded a reporter for a New York
news-
paper. Democratic regulars retreated, reviving the Australian ballot bill
prepared by
the Democratic Business Men's Association, which they amended and promptly
enacted into law. Although it applied to only fourteen of Maryland's
counties, it
represented the adoption of the state's modem system of voting.36
Significantly, however, the Republican legislators, after clamoring for the
Aus-
tralian ballot, voted against the measure while regular Democrats supported
its
passage-suggesting that in their amendments the Democrats had learned how to
shape the Australian system to their own purpose. Indeed, it is inaccurate
to con-
clude, as some political scientists have done, that the adoption of the
Australian
ballot ended the previous practice of manipulating the electoral framework
for
partisan purposes. Although labor reformers, mugwumps, conservative
business-
men, and political radicals had led the movement for ballot reform, the
actual law
was shaped and enacted by practical politicians who understood the
electorate and
how election machinery influenced political outcomes. The law derived from
polit-
ical conflict; not surprisingly, it also reflected it. "In matters of
{electoral} legisla-
tion," one newspaper later concluded, "the `professionals' beat the
amateurs every
day. "37
In the first place, the legislature attempted to retain some of the
familiar partisan
features of the old ballot system while providing the secret and official
character-
istics of the new. Rather than adopting an office-bloc ballot format, which
would
minimize partisanship and encourage split-ticket voting, the Maryland law
adopted
the parry-column format. This grouped candidates by parties in parallel
columns,
at the head of which appeared party vignettes to enable the voter to
distinguish the
separate parry slates. The new law, moreover, provided that a single mark by
a vignette would constitute a vote for the entire parry ticket, and thus it
facilitated
straight-ticket voting and minimized the demands placed upon the partisan
voter. 38
Second, the law attempted to promote the particular interests of the
dominant
Democratic party. It authorized the governor, rather than county
commissioners, to
appoint a Board of Election Supervisors in each county. Although such three-
member boards were to have minority representation, this measure gave the
Demo-
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