The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-02-23
THE PACIFIC
Y. %

DOUBTLESS the coming session of the Legisla
tive Assembly will bring to the front, as usual
a great many new bills On every imaginable sub
ject, and amendments, wise and otherwise, tc
existing statutes. And as public journalists VT
deem it our province, in anticipation of the
session, to indicate, in brief, some of the changes
in existing statutes and some of the new enact
ments which the public interest demands and
which public opinion f, eors.
The first of our statute laws which we will
mention as needing revision and amendment, is
that in regard to the mode Of conducting cleo
tions for Representatives Of the people. The
present law is numbered with formalities that
are quite useless, and which often operate in
DISTINGUISHING a voter, for no fault or disability
of bis own-and it is really a serious matter to
deprive even one man of the sacred right of the
ballot. Under the head Of ." Qualifications of
Electors, the law in one place requires that a
voter 8 shall cause his name to be entered on the
list of voters for his district - and in another
that . the assessors of taxes in the several dis
tricts shall carefully record upon their several
assessment registers, in separate columns, to be
provided for that purpose, the names of all
persons possessing the requisite qualifications for
voters - that the tax collector - shall make out
an accurate list of the names Of all the persons
in his district who shall have paid their taxes for
the year Immediately preceding an election
and whose names shall have been furnished him
by the assessor this list the tax collector is to
furnish to the inspectors Of elections. ANY
assessor or collector who shall fail or neglect to
make such register, is to be fined 500; and
every collector who shall fail to return to the
inspectors Of election an accurate list, as before
prescribed, of all the persons who NAV have
paid their taxes and whose names appear on the
assessment register, shall be fined 800. The
tax collector gives to each tax payer, who is
properly qualified, a receipt, having printed on it
the words - Qualified to vote" Here, then, we
have the voter apparently fully equipped and
ready to perform the important duty of deposit
ting his ballot for the man of his choice. He is
doubly qualified, for not only is he registered as
a voter, but he holds Il certificate, in red ink. of
his qualification. But errors and omissions will
occur occasionally with the most careful and
conscientious Of men, and it has happened, in a
number of instances, that the voter, on present
ing himself at the ballot-box with his certificate
in red ink has found that his vote was refused
because his name had been doubtless uninten-
tionally, omitted from the register. 1t will be
noted that the law in one place speaks of the
voter as " having caused his name to be entered
on the register" and in another place makes it
the duty of the assessor of the tax collector
under penalty of a fine, to carefully " and
accurately " make out such list. On the other
hand we Lave seen Il voter debarred of the priyi-
lege of the ballot for the reason that although
his name appeared ON the register as duly quail
fed, he had lost or mislaid his tax receipt
which receipt was merely cumulative evidence of
what the register proved-his qualifications as a
voter. We submit that this cumbersome red
in regard to elections should be swept
from the statute book, and that a simple register
Of qualified voters, kept by the tax collector, is
that need be substituted in its place.
One mischieyous result Of the system of re-
Iuiring the production of the voters tax receipt
It the polls, is not generally known. Candidates
Tor election to the Legislature, in canvassing for
iotes, induce the simple minded people to deliver
INTO their keeping these receipts, which are held
Until the moment of voting, when they are re-
urned to the electors along with The ballot of
he enterprising candidate. OF course there is
lothing illegal about the transaction, but we
nay readily understand how the system works
.mOng the people. 1t has also happened in
more than one instance that Il person having by
ONE means got possession of another's tax re-
eipt has represented himself as the one described \
q such receipt, and SO been allowed to vote,
1hile the rightful owner has been turned away.
Tor is there any punishment provided in the law
to preserve the purity of elections for illegal =
0ting. At the last election one arrest was made
this city, for the ofFense Of illegal voting, but
being no special provision in regard to it IN
lie statutes, the police magistrate committed the
fender for trial at the Supreme Court under the
It of 1870, regarding false representation. The I
se has not yet been heard in that tribunal and !
remains to be seen whether the act in question d
be held to apply, as it was evidently framed =,
view of a totally different class of ofFenses. i
We propose to continue, in our next and sue :,
eding issues, the discussion of the subject of .
eeded Legislation. .