No. 192.
Mr. Francis to Mr. Fish.
Athens, March 23, 1872. (Received April 19.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatches numbered 15 and 16.
The returns of the recent elections in Greece have not been received from some of the more remote districts in the provinces, but sufficient is known to determine the general result. The present ministry is sustained by a decisive majority. It is claimed that of the one hundred and eighty deputies elected, Mr. Bulgaris, the prime minister, has some eighty supporters, and Mr. Commondouros forty to fifty. The latter has three of his friends in the cabinet, which fact is considered a guarantee that he will continue his support of the ministry. The opposition leaders, Deliorges and Zaimis, are sure of no more than forty to fifty votes, the latter (late prime minister) having the least.
The irregularities and violence at the elections in a number of the provincial districts continue to excite very earnest discussion. It is charged that these excesses were perpetrated for the most part by soldiers, in the interest of the government candidates. The newspaper organs of the ministry state positively that the government gave the most explicit orders to have the law upheld, and to protect voters in the full exercise of their rights. They concede that in a few districts outrages occurred, so that the people were practically disfranchised. And they say that in all such cases the violators of law, no matter in whose interest they acted, must be punished, and that the chamber of deputies, on assembling next month, (April 7,) should make it its first duty to investigate this matter thoroughly, and order new elections where fraud and disfranchisement have prevailed.
The manner of conducting elections here is quite original. There is universal suffrage, as with us. The Greeks do not use printed tickets, but cast their votes in the following unique manner: Each candidate has a ballot-box assigned to him. The box is made of tin, and resembles in shape a stove, with a piece of horizontal pipe. The voter, on approaching the box, receives a small ball from the officer in attendance, and [Page 238] reaching his hand into the pipe so far that his arm is hid up to the elbow, he drops the ball into one of the two holes which lead into the two compartments of the box below. If he deposits the ball in the right-hand hole, it is a vote for the candidate; if into the left, it is a vote against him. Thus every voter votes yes or no for every candidate. At the close of the election, which this year continued four days, the seals are broken and the votes counted in the presence of representatives of the candidates. The candidate who received the most affirmative votes is elected, provided also he has more ayes than noes. But it may happen that all the candidates are unpopular, and receive more negative votes than affirmative, and in this case a new election is necessary.
No one can be a candidate who does not deposit beforehand with the magistrate a nomination signed by at least one hundred voters. He must, also pay fifty or sixty dollars for the expenses of box, balls, &c.
There are several advantages belonging to this system, besides the perfect secrecy which it gives to the voter. The friends of a given policy or measure can display their strength by running a candidate whom they have no chance of electing, and at the same time not lose the privilege of discriminating between the real competitors. Third-party men do not incur the reproach of throwing away their votes.
Again, nominating conventions, with their vast, expensive, and too often corrupt machinery, may be dispensed with. All the members of a party who wish to run for a vacant office can do so without necessarily hazarding one another’s chances for success. The rank and file of the party will vote for all of their own party candidates, and the one who secures the largest vote from outsiders will, of course, have the largest total vote. His “availability” is proved in the campaign itself.
Again, not only can the members of a party which is hopelessly in the minority in a given locality determine which candidate of the majority shall be elected, but patriotic men of all parties, without voting against any of their party friends, can also compliment a party opponent whose public services or moral worth ought to be appreciated by the whole community.
This method of voting was employed in the Ionian Islands while they were under English protection, and was first introduced into Greece proper after the expulsion of King Otho. It seems to be generally acceptable, except to those who disapprove of secret voting altogether.
I am, &c,