, 1865-02-09

A registry voting Dill has passed Iue 1o"c
House OF our State Legislature. and will
doubtless 20 through the Senate. There is
lust ono drnw back to any registry law VIC
ever read, which materially reduces its value
and renders 1t practically worthless as mode
Of preventing fraudulent voting, and that is
the apparently inscperable difficulty Of pre-
venting improper names from being entered
on tue registry lists. We ask the honorable
gentlemen who hare framed the present bill,
in what way have they provided against Mike
O'Murphy, TN alien, having his name entered
on tie registry Of the 5th Ward, 1st precinct
Of Chicago, ii he takes the requisite oath
and of repeating the process IN the I'd pre-
c;nct end then In half dozen other
wards under different a'iaxs = How is he to be
prevented from entering the names of half Of
his male relations in the "ould country" and
casting q vote for each Of them on election
day How is the lnvincible Club and Knights
Of the Golden Circle to be prevented from en-
tering hundreds and thousands Of spurious
names on the lists, and On election day hare
men selected to pcrsonate these fraudulent
cntriess They will have week or fortnight
in which to do this work systematically and
cover up their tracks effectual1y. Bear in
mind that in half the precincts Of the State
the Inspectors who make the entries and re-
caiye the proof will be the political friends
and allies Of the - vote brokers' and Is yotc
jumpers" who will at least wink at the
frauds being perpctrated in behalf Of their
party. The registry law passed by the Wis
consin Legislature last winter, instead Of pre-
venting fraudulent yoting added one thou
..~l aI,n nod snri4.- T., Afs1rnv
kce, and increased the Copperhead vote in
the State at least 5000. The New York regis
try law added 10000 to AcClelian's vote in
the city and x, 600 in the State. Instead Of
being TN act to prevent Illegal voting it
ought to be called !" IN act to enable Copper
heads 10 etud the ballot boxes with spurious
votes" and unless the bill now before our
Legislature is drawn with remarkable fore
sight and care 1t will in practice, promote and
conceal, rather than prevent and expose ile-
| Eal voting.
There is one amendment to our election
laws, simple in Its nature, and easy to enforce,
| which, II enacted, will prevent fi1c illegal
votes, for every one which will be stopped
| BY registry act, Eiz: Make 1t obligatory on
| judges Of election to require the naturaliza~
tion paper to be presented, Of any foreigner
whose rote is challenged. And when present
ed, require the judges to endorse on the back
thereof, the date Of the election. This will
ef1ectually prevent the certificate from being
used by the same OF any otacr person, on
that day, at any other ward or precinct.
It Is astonishing, the number OF fraudulent
votes this amendment would prevent from
getting into the ballot boxes. We arc conf.
dent that one to two thousand illegal votes
are cast 1T every warmly contested election
in this city, By pro-slavery, unnaturalfzed
Irishmen, and there is no other practical
method Of preventing these frauds, save by
obliging foreigners to present their naturali-
zation papers, as part Of the proof necessary
to establish their right to vote. It is no hard
ship on any one. Germans nearly always
bring their certificates Of naturalization along
with them I'd the polls; their common sense
telling them that if challenged 1t is only right
and proper for the judges to See their "pa-
pers - and German very rarely attempts to
vote, unless he has been naturalixed. bnt it
| is notoriously different with the gentlemen
| blessed with the rich broguc.
Let members make little calculation of
the amount Of fraudulent voting this pro
posed amendment would prevent, in towns
other than Chicago, such as Joliet, Lockport,
LaSa1le, Ottawa, Peoria, Pekln, Springfield,
Alton. Quincy, Galcna, Freeport, Cairo, and
hundred other places that might be named.
|