Section 3
The Resulting Political Ignorance of the Voter and His Consequent Disfranchisement

Of course, there is some political ignorance due to illiteracy and general lack of intelligence. With this, however, we are not now principally concerned. It is here assumed that except in small and exceptional districts the great majority of voters are neither illiterate nor unintelligent, but are of a fair average intelligence and capable of reaching and following sound moral and political judgments. The fact which is now to be emphasized is that the burden upon the voter is such that the vote of the most intelligent man is made quite as politically ignorant as that of the least intelligent. The percentage of politically ignorant voting has become very high, not because the voter is unintelligent, but in spite of the fact that he may be extremely intelligent. An electorate that is capable of casting an 85 per cent intelligent vote on a given matter of importance has, by the simple process of requiring the voter to vote too much, been reduced to the voting effectiveness of a Filipino who is not yet ready for popular institutions. To the extent that our intelligent voter has thus artificially been made ignorant in the discharge of his political duties he has been disfranchised. Too much of what popularly passes for democracy has resulted in too little real democracy.

When the voter faces in the voting booth such a ballot as that already exhibited supra ([opposite p. 29]), or even a much simpler one, he has no time to analyze his condition of knowledge or ignorance. He must vote quickly and be about his business. If we could secure a revelation from the voter of the state of his mind as he faces the ballot, would not his condition of ignorance be appalling? He would, of course, admit that he knew nothing of the duties of a large number of the offices to be filled. He would admit that he knew nothing of the qualifications of a large number of the men who were seeking office. Indeed, many of them he would never have heard of. The average voter would no doubt have prepared himself, by reading, by following events, and by discussing the matter with other voters, to vote for a particular candidate for president of the United States. From the same sources he might acquire a personal preference among the candidates for governor of the state. He might have a personal preference founded upon some actual knowledge or current rumor as to the proper candidate for congressman or member of the state legislature or president of the county board. He might be satisfied that some one of the several candidates running for several vacancies on the bench ought to be elected. It is hardly probable, however, that he will have any personal preference founded upon any actual knowledge as to the candidates for all these places at once. Outside the candidates for three or four places he will be utterly and entirely devoid of any personal knowledge upon which to base an intelligent vote.

To make this position more concrete I will describe my own state of mind as to the ballot illustrated supra ([facing p. 29]). I never heard the names of any of the candidates on the Socialist Labor, the Socialist, or Prohibition tickets except those of Debs and Chafin, and of these I had an impression about the qualifications for office only with respect to Mr. Debs. On the Democratic ticket I think I was intelligent with respect to Mr. Wilson’s candidacy for president and Mr. Dunne’s for governor. I had some personal knowledge regarding one candidate for a trustee of the state university, the candidates for state’s attorney and for president of the Board of County Commissioners. The other names on the Democratic ticket meant nothing to me. On the Republican ticket I regarded myself as informed sufficiently to vote intelligently on Mr. Taft’s candidacy for president, and Mr. Deneen’s for governor. I had some personal knowledge regarding one candidate for representative at large in Congress, the candidates for representative in Congress from the congressional district, and for president of the Board of County Commissioners. Of the remaining thirty-nine names on the Republican ticket I recognized one as that of the son of a war governor, one as a former attorney-general, one as a former county judge, three seeking clerkships and the office of coroner, as the incumbents of the offices for which they were running, and one as a lawyer with whom I had some personal acquaintance. The names of the other candidates at the time I voted meant absolutely nothing to me. On the Progressive ticket I was intelligent with respect to Mr. Roosevelt’s candidacy for president and Mr. Johnson’s for vice-president; also to the candidacy of those seeking the offices of attorney-general and representative to the state legislature. I had some acquaintance with one of the candidates for trustee of the University of Illinois, and one of the five candidates for county commissioner. The rest of the names meant nothing whatever to me.

If the offices which the voter was called upon to fill while politically ignorant were few in number and altogether insignificant in the extent of the governmental power which they controlled, not much harm would be done. But little by little, as population has increased and social and governmental organization has become more complex and the political duties of the voter have grown heavier, the political ignorance of the voter has extended to a constantly increasing number of candidates for office, until the sum total of the governmental power of all the offices for which the voter casts his ballot in political ignorance constitutes the principal part of the entire local and state governmental power. The great sources of governmental power are the Congress of the United States, the legislatures of the state and local governments. When the tide of political ignorance on the part of the intelligent voter rises so high that it embraces the candidates for the local, state, and federal legislative bodies, the situation is serious. When it includes the local judiciary and all but the president of the United States, the highest executive officer of the state and of the principal local government, the situation has become desperate.

So far as the electorate is too ignorant to vote intelligently it has been in effect disfranchised. It does not really vote at all. If the voter were required to vote blindfolded, or if the ballot were made up in cipher, he would know that he was disfranchised. Suppose, however, that the voter is blindfolded or the ballot done in cipher only in those instances where the voter is called upon to vote without any political information necessary to enable him to vote intelligently. Would he be any worse off because of the cipher or the bandage on his eyes? Does not the political ignorance of the voter as clearly deprive him of his power to vote as the use of a cipher or blindfolding? In both cases he goes through the mechanical act of voting, but he records nothing at all by so doing.

The ignorance of the voter and his consequent disfranchisement follow necessarily from our present plan of government. They result immediately from the burdens placed upon the electorate. Those in turn arise from the application of the two principles of government which we have constantly heretofore applauded and proclaimed—the decentralization of governmental power and the principle that all offices of any consequence should be elective. These principles of government are still regarded by the mass of the people as the true and only sources of democracy and the necessary protection of the people from all forms of unpopular government. The application of these principles is in varying degrees protected by state constitutions which provide for the separation of the powers of government, both state and local, among departments and officers, and require local as well as state subordinate officers to be elected at frequent intervals.[4] Thus do the letter and the spirit of our governmental theory and practice necessarily induce the wholesale ignorance and consequent disfranchisement of the large majority of the electorate in regard to candidates for offices, which, when filled, wield a very large, if not the larger, part of the state and local governmental power.

Formerly unpopular government was founded upon the absence of any voting. Today the electorate, while voting furiously, has nevertheless been deprived to a large extent of the ballot because a burden of knowledge—an educational qualification, in effect—has been placed upon it which, under present conditions, it does not and cannot fulfil. Thus, by the simple process of too much so-called popular democracy—that is, too much decentralization of governmental power and too much voting—we have arrived at the essential condition which invites the establishment of unpopular government—namely, the disfranchisement of the electorate.

Section 4
The Power of the Electorate Passes to Those Who Take Advantage of Its Political Ignorance to Direct It How to Vote

The severe educational qualification which has been imposed upon the electorate today has done more than merely deprive the voter of the power to vote. It has presented to others the opportunity to direct the voter how to vote and thus in effect to cast his ballot for him. That opportunity has at once been taken advantage of by men who have been quick to perceive the vast political power which the privilege of casting the voter’s ballot for him confers. This combination of opportunity and selfish motive is the complete cause of the passing of a considerable part of the political power of the electorate at large to the few who direct it how to vote. It is important that the way in which the effect follows from the causal conditions be set forth in as detailed and precise a manner as possible.