Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1876-09-22
HOW TO PREVENT FRAUD AT
TIE BALLOT ROX.

make Governor of North Carolina!
HOW TO PREVENT FRAUD AT
TEE BALLOT BOX.
The sixth article of the Constitution
relates to suffrage and eligibility to
Office.
It is needless to tell any sane, sensi~
BILE man that, in a country in which
governments rise and fall, according
to the will of the people as expressed
at the ballot box, it is Of prime i'm.
portance to prevent fraudulent voting.
Freedom of elections and the purity
Of the ballot box are absolutely essen
sential to the long continued existence
of Democratic government and this
is what the amendment to this article
of the Constitution seeks to secure.
There are two changes made by this
amendment the first requires resi-
dence of ninety days in the county to
enable man to vote, instead of thirty,
as the law now stands. The second
prohibits airy man from voting who
shall hereafter commit any Infamous
crime and who shall be convicted
thereof.
The first change, that which requires
ninety days residence in county be-
fore man can vote, instead of thirty
as heretofore, was proposed to pre-
vent what in these latter days is known
as "colonizing." Not one election, we
venture to say, has been held since
the impo sition of the Candy Consti-
tuition, in which there has not been
more or less ''coionizing" done by tie
Radical. party. In 1872 negroes were
brought, as far as from Washington
City, to vote the Radical ticket in
North Carolina. Nor was there any
thing to prevent Their coming from
South Carolina and Virginia for the
same purpose. Nor was this particu-
lar kind of fraudulent voting confined
to voters imported from other States.
In closely contested counties the COM
mon practice has been to introduce
negroes just before the election from
counties in which there were large
negro majorities, register them and
vote them. This is especially easy
along the lines of the various railways
in the State; but that it has not been
confined to them alone, the county of
Pitt ia notable and we'll known ex-
ample. The evil was great and
grievous one. It Was to this cause
that our friends attribute the loss of
the county of Mecklenburg in
the election of delegates to the
Constitutional Convention last year.
And we all remember the answer of
the poor ignorant negro a few years
by the poll holders where he had
voted the year pl evious, openly
said that ain the morning he had
be had voted in the First Ward" the
First Ward being in New Hanover
county and Northwest precinct being
in Brunswick county, It was to pro-
tect the ballot box from fraud of this
character that the proposed amend
ments require a residence of ninety
days. Other States have found it ne
cessary to adopt the same precaution,
Massachusetts, for example, having
gone SO far as to require six months
instead ct ninety days residence in a
county before permitting it's citizens
to vote. No man familiar with the his
tory of elections in North Carolina
since 1868 can truthfully say the
change was not needed Yet only one
Radical member could be induced to
vote for it.
The other change simply prevents
thieves and other felons convicted of
Infamous crimes hereafter committed
from exercising the right of suffra 3e.
That such creatures as these are unfit
to have any voice in the control of the
government under which honest men
are to live, would seem to be a plain
proposition. AS the law now stands
the pick pocket and the breaker,
the forger and the perjurer, can kill
the votes of the best, purest, most
honest and most intelligent men in the
whalelState. Such ought not to be the
law. and yet of the fifty nine Radical
members of the Convention only five
could be found with courage enough
to say, by their votes, that convicted |
thieves and pick-pockets, and forgers,
and perjurers, and barn-burners ought |
not to go to the polls with honest men,
It speaks badly for a party that it's |
leaders are thus afraid to make any
distinction between rogues and honest |
men at the ballot-box.