The Political Shell Game
How the primary 'second choice' rule creates a system of backroom dealing and favors the 'political weakling.'
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
With eight candidates in the race for the Republican nomination for governor, the school boy stands about an equal chance with the veteran politician in picking the winner. If the nominees were to be chosen on first choice votes it might be possible to forecast results with some reasonable degree of accuracy, but the second choice vote is an unknown factor in political calculations. The object of the second choice provision in the primary law was to simplify the selection of nominees. It operates exactly to the contrary and instead of simplifying, it complicates matters. If the second choice vote was used as intended and put into the ballot box for the candidate whom the voter believes to be the second best man in the race, the best man would probably win. But as long as the voter honestly votes his first choice and delivers his second choice into the hands of campaign managers to be swapped and traded like a bone-spavined horse or a bladeless jackknife, the way to the head of the party is opened to the political weakling and the blatant grandstander.
“But as long as the voter honestly votes his first choice and delivers his second choice into the hands of campaign managers to be swapped and traded like a bone-spavined horse or a bladeless jackknife, the way to the head of the party is opened to the political weakling and the blatant grandstander.”
The frustration over 'swapping' votes and the complexity of electoral math remains a central theme in modern political discourse, reflecting a century-long anxiety about how backroom deals undermine voter intent.
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