ELECTION PRECINCTS.
Mr. Heffren's bill [H. R. 79] to amend Sections 8 and 9 of an act concerning elections proposing to increase the number of votes in election Precincts from 350 to 500;] was read the third time.
Mr. SMITH, of Tippecanoe, stated that the one thing he thought he knew about election matters was this that the less frequently the law was changed the better for all persons concerned. He thought the laws were changed so frequently that if we were to hold strictly to the letter of the law no elections would be legal. He thought that the Precincts should be small. It caused too great a delay of the election returns where the Precincts are large.
Mr. WILSON, of Marion, opposed the passage of the bill, contending that the act of the last Legislature regulating election districts was working satisfactorily, and that to make the change proposed by this would be to practically disfranchise many workingmen, who could not vote until the last hour of the polling. He moved that the bill be recommitted with instructions to the Committee on County and Township Business.
Mr. JEWETT thought the motion to recommit should not prevail, and that the bill itself should be voted down. He thought the people of the State were satisfied with the present law.
Mr. MOODY hoped the motion to recommit would prevail. It would simply place the bill back where it could be considered again by the Committee.
Mr. GORDON was of the opinion that our present election law is good enough as it is. The bill would not be in the interest of economy. He hoped that the motion to recommit would not prevail and that the bill would not pass.
Mr. STEWART opposed the motion to recommit. We have only had one election uno er the present law. The people have just learned where their Precincts are. He was of the opinion that the Precincts should not be channel every time the Legislature met. He considered the difference in the expense between having two Election Boards and having one to be very little.
Mr. SHIVELY was in favor of recommitting the bill. It had been a source of great inconvenience to the people of his County. He considered a Precinct of 350 voters too small in the rural districts. He thought 500 votes s to the Precinct was not too large.
The motion to recommit was rejected.
The bill was also rejected by yeas, 21; nays, 48.
The House took a recess until 2 o'clock.
