1892. ] OF THE SENATE. 607

careful reading of the same and a close examination,
of the reasoning upon which it is based, clearly shows
that it is not an authority in the pending case under
our Maryland Statute.

The provisions of the two statutes vary much as to
the official ballot, so that, as I shall show, a change or
difference in the designation of place in the New York
ballot would destroy its secrecy, while the same change
in the Maryland ballot would not.

In New York, the law provides that the voter shall
be handed as many ballots as there are political par-
ties of a certain strength. The ballots are separate or
separable and not a blanket ballot with the tickets of
all the parties on one piece of paper, as we have in
Maryland

In the case above referred to, the Republican tickets
of certain districts, proved on being counted, to have
been designed for certain other districts. In other
words the designation of the polling place on the back
of the Republican tickets was wrong. Such designa-
tion on all other tickets used at said election was cor-
rect and proper.

The Boards of Canvassers counted these tickets and
a mandamus was prayed and issued to compel said
Board to correct its returns and in such correction to
exclude all ballots not bearing a correct designation
o t the polling-place.

The Court of Appeals of New York in sustaining
this mandamus, based its opinion solely and wholely
upon the ground that the purpose of the law was to
secure absolute secrecy in voting and thus to prevent
bribery, intimidation and fraud: that the fact that a
difference existed between the ballots cast by Repub-
licans and those cast by the adherents of other parties,
namely, the wrong designation of place on the Repub-
lican ticket, destroyed the salient feature of the law,
because, such wrong designation was a distinguishing
mark, that the law prohibited any ballot with a dis-
tinguishing mark from being deposited in the ballot
box, and that such provision in that law was mandatory,
because a strict compliance with it was necessary to
maintain the secrecy of the ballot, which, was the
prime purpose of the law.