LIKE SILVER BALLS rolling down the slope of a pinball machine, the presidential hopefuls shuttled through St. Louis this summer, trying to score some points at the Young Democrats' August convention. They bounced off the same bumpers, usually variations on energy and the economy, and often at the same angles, emphasizing continued price controls on domestic oil and public service jobs. Some bounced harder than others, advocating the breakup of the oil companies or wage and price controls in the inflation-prone food and energy sectors of the economy. The lights whirred and the bells changed, and the Young Democrats were bemoaning not a lack but an overabundance of "good" candidates. But when the straw vote was held on the morning of the convention's last day, the delegates expressed a clear preference for President: Birch Bayh, U.S. Senator from Indiana.

Bayh's free play came in the next day's headlines--the first and (so far) only major publicity of his campaign (not counting the Harvard Independent). His organization had been gearing up for months, however, and included such high-powered figures as Ann Lewis of Massachusetts, former special assistant to Major Kevin White and sister to State Rep. Barney Frank. Bayh's Indiana senatorial margins have always been slim, but he has been working since before 1972 to create a national constituency. An early and effective Nixon foe, Bayh led the opposition to the Haynesworth and Carswell Supreme Court nominations. He parlayed an obscure sub-committee chairmanship, that of the Constitutional Amendments Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, into landmark legislation and Six O'Clock News Slots. Bayh's presidential succession amendment of 1967, designed to prevent vacancies in the office of Vice President, instead precipitated the Nixon/Ford/Rockefeller brand of participatory democracy. Bayh also claims credit for steering the 18-year-old vote to passage, as well as the Equal Rights Amendment. And this summer he helped block once again the Buckley anti-abortion amendment.

Even with these credentials, however Bayh was a surprise winner over second-place Mo Udall and third-place Jimmy Carter. The Indiana delegation had done little or no campaigning, while the Tennessee and Georgia delegates had plastered Carter's craggy smile all over walls, chairs, and their own chests, and the Arizona Young Democrats had hosted a crowded free-breakfast-with-Udall just before the vote. What seems to have made the campaigning irrelevant was the highly disproportionate number of delegates allowed from the different states.

THE DRAMA was played out in the credentials committee meetings during convention week. Each state was entitled to 10 delegates per 1000 Young Democrats and anyone who was an under-35 registered Democrat and had filled out and signed an address sheet affirming, "I am a Young Democrat," qualified as a Young Democrat. Kentucky traipsed in with over 10,000 address sheets and claimed the maximum of 110 delegates. Every time the committee attempted to invalidate addresses like "John Smith, Boone Country," the Kentucky state Y.D. chairman paced the room in his cowboy boots and hat and three piece white suit and protested that "Kentucky's got a lotta country folks got no address 'cept Boone County." The credentials committee finally gave in after the Kentuckians threatened to stall the entire convention by examining all the address sheets of other states for missing items like zip codes.

Using similar tactics, the Illinois delegation gained 105 seats; after all Mayor Daley is one of the all-time great graveyard vote getters. By comparison, California had 55 delegates, and New York only 22. The primary reasons were financial--delegates had to get to St. Louis on their own. Thus, host state Missouri had over 40 delegates, and nearby Indiana over 30. While St. Louis was probably the most geographically central location, it did result in a heavy preponderance of delegates from Birch Bayh's backyard. Despite this disproportionate representation, the press reported the straw vote as a significant indicator of youth's preferences and as a needed boost to Birch Bayh's presidential campaign.

But the results of the straw vote were nothing more than decorative, like the garish gunfighters and naked bodies that gyrate on pinball machines. The scoreboard lit up in St. Louis and a winner was announced, but the machine was tilted the whole time.