The main interest of election reform ers in the United States is now directed to the primary elections. As these are wholly within the party, and the political party itself is not provided for in the State and Federal Constitutions, the task of reforming it is rather a difficult one. The right to nominate is such an im portant one that if corrupt interests or the political "boss" control the choice of candidates the matter of the elections be comes chiefly a choosing between two sets of "bossed" nominees. Most of the States had by 1920 provided for the nam ing of the candidates by direct primary vote instead of the old convention system, believing that it would be more difficult for the "boss" to manipulate the votes of thousands than it was for him to sway a convention. This has proved only partially true. In the presidential primary campaign of 1912 many North ern States had what was known as presi dential preference primaries in which the voters of the party instructed their dele rates to the national convention. In most States, however, it is not obligatory upon the delegates to follow these in structions. In the primary elections there is no law compelling publicity of campaign expenditures, and this again has tended to produce corrupt practices in party elections. The revelations made by the Congressional Investigating Com mittee as to the money spent by the rival candidates for the Republican nomination in 1920 stimulated the de mand for stricter State laws governing primary elections.
In England there have been but few amendments to the excellent Corrupt Practices Act of 1883, which limits the expenses of candidates and clearly ex cludes all methods of intimidation, bribery, or any other means of improp erly influencing the voter's choice. By Act of Parliament woman suffrage was granted in 1918, and in the elections held charged and the charge was collected by means of insulated metallic forks, while the negative electricity produced on the leather escaped to the ground. A modi fication of this machine was that of Ed ward Nairne, who used a glass cylinder, with insulated conductors on opposite sides. One conductor carried a leather cushion, and the other a row of metal points, while a silk apron covered the surface of the cylinder from the leather almost to the points. Positive electricity was formed on the conductor carrying the points and negative electricity on that carrying the leather cushion, while the silk served to prevent the loss of the electric charge while the cylinder was passing from the rubber to the collecting points. All these types of frictional ma chines have been rendered obsolete, how ever, by the introduction of the so-called "influence machines," which operate by induction. Suppose a conducting body in December of that year women cast their votes for Members of the House of Commons.