Twelve years later the same county counted women registering to vote, precinct by precinct; see Women Register to Vote, 1920.
Township History · 1908
Voting Machines at Leo
Fort Wayne Daily News, Tuesday, November 3, 1908, page 12.
On Election Day 1908 the Fort Wayne Daily News reported voting machines in five Allen County precincts: three in Fort Wayne’s Sixth ward, one at Monroeville, and one at Leo. The paper said the machines “proved a great success,” and County Commissioner Joseph Tonkel, who voted on the machine at Leo, said it had been “working without a hitch.” Because paper ballots were “enormous affairs” and slow to count, the paper expected the night’s first returns to come from the machine precincts, Cedar Creek among them.
Transcription
Unofficial transcription, prepared from the archive scan for ease of reading, copying, and searching. The printed page is authoritative. Original spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing are preserved. Nothing has been corrected or modernized.
THE LOCAL ELECTION
(Continued From First Page.)
[…]
Machines a Success.
The voting machines, which were located in three precincts in the Sixth ward and at Leo, Cedar Creek township, and Monroeville, Monroe township, proved a great success. As high as three to four men a minute were voted and in no place did the machines refuse to vote. In a number of instances it was necessary for the electors to receive instructions, but for the most part the machines worked very smoothly.
The agitation by the News of the danger in delaying voting in the voting machine precincts caused the voters to turn out early and a heavy vote was cast on the machines in the first few hours of the day, 390 votes having been cast in Precinct C, of the Sixth ward, by 9:15 a. m. The News had repeatedly called attention to the fact that if the voters in the machine precincts delayed voting until late in the day they would likely lose their votes and the warning was heeded in a manner that surprised the election officials in these precincts. It is believed that a large number of straight ballots were cast on the machines.
Up to 12:45 p. m. 580 votes had been cast in Precinct C, of the Sixth ward. This is the big precinct of the ward, the vote numbering nearly 800.
In Precinct A, 460 votes had been cast up to 12:50 p. m. The votes in this precinct are estimated at about 600.
In Precinct B, 449 votes had been cast up to 1 p. m. The estimated number of voters is 600.
County Commissioner Joseph Tonkel voted on the machine at Leo and stated that it had been working without a hitch. Similar word was received from Monroeville.
Many Mixed Votes.
Reports from all the precincts of the county indicate a tremendous vote and judging from the length of time taken to vote in many instances it is believed considerable scratching was done. Some of the precincts reported that voters required from three to eight minutes to fix up their ballots.
Should these reports of scratching prove true, the returns from the county tonight will necessarily come in slowly, as the ballots are enormous affairs and the counting will proceed slowly. The first returns expected are those from the Sixth ward and from Monroe and Cedar Creek township, where machines are used.
Notes
- Excerpt, not the whole story. The image joins the continuation headline to the voting-machine passage, with a dotted line marking the omitted text between them. Every word of the passage itself is reproduced. The front-page opening of "The Local Election" is on a different page and has not been captured.
- Date. Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 1908. The story reports counts "up to 1 p. m." and expects returns "tonight," so it was written and printed that same afternoon.
- "390 votes." The first digit is slightly broken on the film; 390 is the best reading. The other figures (580, nearly 800, 460, about 600, 449, 600) are clear.
- Precincts A, B and C in these paragraphs are the three Sixth-ward precincts in Fort Wayne, not Cedar Creek's precincts A and B. Leo is mentioned by name only where the machines are listed and in the Tonkel paragraph.
- "Joseph Tonkel." County Commissioner Tonkel voted at Leo. Tonkel Road is the township's western boundary with Perry Township; whether the road is named for this family is not stated here.
- "scratching." Period term for splitting a party ballot by crossing out ("scratching") candidates instead of voting the straight ticket.
- Not stated in the article. It doesn't say how these precincts were chosen, what law allowed the machines, or whether 1908 was their first use. Leo was one of only five machine precincts in the county that day, which is clear from the text; a claim that it was among the first would need another source.
About this clipping
- Source
- Fort Wayne Daily News (Fort Wayne, Indiana), November 3, 1908, page 12.
- Archive
- Newspapers.com, image 28923191 (subscription site). The images and transcription on this page are complete and free to use.
- Copyright
- Published in the United States before 1931 and in the public domain.
- Images
- An excerpt from the archive scan, cleaned for legibility: the continuation headline joined to the voting-machine passage, with a dotted line marking the omitted text.
- Transcription
- Prepared by Robert J. Pfister, October 2026, and checked word by word against a magnified view of the scan.