Election  costs  for  Chicago  and  Cook  County,  which  have
been  growing  at  such  a  rapid  rate  that  the  annual  expense  has
more  than  trebled  in  sixteen  years,  almost  reached  the  $1,000,000
mark  in  1912.  In  1896  expenditures  for  election  purposes  for
the  territory  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Board  of  Election
Commissioners,  which  comprises  the  City  of  Chicago  and  the
Town  of  Cicero,  amounted  to  $288,281.36.  For  1912  the  cor-
responding figures  are  $911,807.29.  The  election  expenses  paid
by  Cook  County  for  1912  for  the  portion  of  the  county  which
lies  outside  of  Chicago  and  Cicero  aggregated  $31,080.25.  This
gives  a  total  of  direct  expenditures  for  the  territory  comprising
the  entire  county  of  $942,887.54.
II.
These  enormous  expenditures  for  election  purposes  are  due
chiefly  to  the  large  number  of  primaries  and  elections.  The
principal  way  to  reduce  election  expenses  is  to  lessen  the  num-
ber of  primaries  and  elections.  This  requires  legislative  action.
City  and  judicial  primaries  should  be  abolished.  The  money
spent  upon  such  primaries  is  worse  than  wasted.  Nominations
for  city  and  judicial  offices  should  be  made  by  petition  only  and
party  columns  and  party  designations  should  be  eliminated  from
the  election  ballot.  Abolishing  primaries  for  city  and  judicial
elections  would  mean  doing  away  with  one  city  primary  in  Chi-
cago every  year  and  two  judicial  primaries  in  a  six-year  period,
or  eight  primaries  in  six  years.
6  Chicago  Bureau  of  Public  Efficiency

III.
