or postponed until it has been completed. The process of counting the ballots is provided in detail by statute, and the most explicit arrangements have been made to prevent a false count in the case of any candidate or proposition submitted to vote.

When the canvass has been completed, the total number of votes received by each candidate shall be publicly declared by one of the inspectors.

Boards of Canvassers.-In each county of the State, the board of supervisors is required to choose, every second year, three persons, who, with the county clerk, are constituted a board of county canvassers.* This board meets at the office of the county clerk shortly after each election, and proceeds to canvass the votes cast for county, state and federal officers, as shown by the returns filed in the office of the county clerk by the various boards of election inspectors.

It is also their duty to declare the result of the election of county officers and members of the legislature, when the county alone constitutes one or more senatorial or representative districts, and to publish a full statement of the votes cast in at least two newspapers circulating in the county.

Similar duties are performed by a board of district canvassers in each election district for the election of a senator and representative in the state legislature, the limits of which are greater than those of a county. This board is composed of the clerks of the several counties in the district, the judge of probate, and the sheriff of the county in which the meetings of the board are held. It certifies, declares and causes to be published the result of the elec

* In Wayne County this board consists of five members, as follows: The Probate Judge, County Treasurer, two members of the Board of Auditors, and one citizen elector chosen by the Board of Supervisors.

tion in the district, and the number of votes given to each candidate.

The board of state canvassers is composed of the secretary of state, the state treasurer and the commissioner of the state land office. This board canvasses the votes cast for state and federal officers, and on questions submitted to popular vote,* as shown by the returns filed by the clerks of the various counties in the office of the secretary of state, and when this has been done it makes proper certificates of the election of such officers, and declares and publishes the result of its canvass.

Elections. In the State of Michigan, there are three elections, to all of which the rules already given are applicable. A general election is held every two years on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November, at which are chosen most of the State officers, representatives in Congress, and county officers, except the commissioner of schools. In addition, presidential electors are chosen every four years at this election.

The spring election occurs on the first Monday in April of each year. Township officers are elected at this time, also judges of the circuit and supreme courts, and regents of the state university.

Local elections for village and city officers are also held in the spring, many of them occurring on the second Monday of March in each year. The time of holding city elections depends upon the provisions of the charters of the respective cities, and is not the same in all cases.

Primaries.—In the broadest sense of the term, these are elections held by a political party, or by any voluntary political association, for the purpose of choosing delegates to political conventions, members of various managing

*For example, a proposed amendment to the Constitution.

committees of the party, and some times for the nomination of candidates for public office.

A general law of the State has been enacted, governing primary elections in cities of not less than fifteen thousand and not more than one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. In municipalities not within the jurisdiction of the general law, or of special acts,* primary elections are held in accordance with the rules of the party holding them. A primary election held in the latter way is sometimes called a caucus."

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We shall consider only primary elections held under the provisions of the general law above mentioned, as it would be impossible within the space which can be given to the subject, to set forth the rules of political parties, relating to the subject.

The time of holding the primaries of any political party is fixed by a notice given by the principal committee of the party holding the primary, and no more than one party is permitted to hold a primary on the same day.

The polls are open from two to eight o'clock P. M., and the election is under the supervision of a board of three inspectors, consisting of a chairman, who must be a member of the ward committee of the party holding the primary and a resident of the ward in which it is held, and of two qualified voters, chosen from the residents of the ward, and belonging to the party holding the primary.

Only registered and qualified voters, who are members of the party holding the primary, are allowed to vote. The voting is done by ballots, which must be provided by the inspectors, and the election may be conducted in the

For example, primary elections in Detroit are held in accordance with a special act of the legislature. See Local Acts of 1895.

same manner as those which have been heretofore described.

It is the duty of every citizen to take part in the primaries of the party to which he belongs, particularly when delegates to nominating conventions are to be chosen, because it is the only way by which the individual can have any voice in the selection of the candidates for whom he will be obliged to vote. Notwithstanding the importance of this duty, it is neglected very frequently by citizens, and the control of primary elections is left in the hands of designing politicians.

Voting Machines. -Under the statutes of this state, the use of voting machines is permitted at elections. These machines are ingenious devices, whereby the voter is enabled to register his vote and have it counted without using a printed ballot. They have been used in a number of the larger cities in this state and elsewhere, and generally have given satisfaction. They have many advantages over the old system, which are, in brief, the absolute secrecy of the ballot, protection against fraud or mistake in counting the votes, economy in holding elections and the recording, as the election proceeds of the total vote for each candidate or proposition submitted. With the use of these machines the result of the election is known as soon as the polls are closed.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

It may be asserted with pride by the citizens of Michigan that its local political institutions received their first impetus from the common-school system inaugurated in the early days of the Territory. As the church furnished the center for the growth of the township in New England, so the schoolhouse and the organization of the school township in Michigan prompted the beginning of local governmental institutions.

The beginning of the school system in Michigan was the provision of the Act of Congress, by which one section or square mile of land in each township was required to be set apart as the basis of a common-school fund, and the history of the State shows that from the earliest period of its existence down to the present time it has always been the special aim and object of its government to provide a system of public schools, so that all the children of the State may receive a good common-school education.

In a free commonwealth, where every one shares in the responsibilities of the government, the general education of the people is a public necessity, since there should be an enlightened public opinion to which those charged with the performance of public duties can appeal for support. For this reason every State in the Union provides for the education of its children, that they may become qualified to exercise the rights and fulfill the duties of citizenship.