CHAPTER XXVIII - POLITICS

In the early days in Shelby county, men took their partisan politics almost as seriously as if it were a religious matter. Campaigns were managed in a greatly different way from what they are now. Before the coming of the Australian ballot law in 1892, each party had a separate ballot and the party workers were well supplied with these as well as the candidates themselves. These ballots were usually between two and three inches wide and ten to twelve inches long, or at least long enough to have printed neatly the names of the respective offices and the candidates aspiring to fill them.

We often hear today of the term “scratching” or a “scratched” ballot. This term comes down to us from the days before the Australian ballot system. In the early days a voter was permitted to take one of the ballots, draw a pencil mark through the name of any candidate for whom he was unwilling to vote, and to write in the name of another candidate, or he was permitted to paste over the name of the candidate for whom he did not wish to vote, a paster on which was printed the name of the rival candidate. Often, and usually, the candidates themselves, or their friends, had ballots already prepared with the pasters attached. A party worker at that time could “fix” and deliver a ballot, walk up with the voter to the ballot box and see that the ballot was actually deposited in the box, so that if a man were inclined to buy a vote, either with money or whiskey, he could be sure that he got what he bought.

During a great many campaigns, before the introduction of the Australian ballot system, whiskey was used to a large extent, sometimes openly, sometimes “on the sly,” and sometimes effectively with many men. It was used, of course, after the coming of the Australian system, but not so effectively, for the reason that it could not be known what the voter would do when he once was in the voting booth marking his ballot secretly. The custom has obtained in Shelby county for many years for the candidates to treat the voters to cigars, and that custom obtains yet to some extent, although it is believed that Shelby county is one of the very few counties in the state to maintain this custom, which has proved very expensive to candidates for office, a custom which many good men are inclined to condemn.

The campaign preceding the vote on the proposed prohibitory amendment to the Constitution of Iowa was hotly and bitterly contested in Shelby county. Men indulged in personalities, such as have probably not been known in any campaign since that time.