Weekly Arizona citizen., 1880-10-30
m. r.nt Register.

Iftbe registration system is oi any ,.,Ino at ali. it must be because 1t Is SO c0n,riycd as to be a check upon un- ',n,borized voting. Every two years <, is rriuted and distributed about the coupty. and il is expected that rell- snce can be placed upon II IS correct Ij-t of those persons who can legally vote at the general election. If lhe document now before Us, and which 1,,rno1ts 10 be a ' Copy of the Grsat Rerisfer of Pima County, Septemhe Der a- 1880. " is a correct copy, then the cr;oinal Is in a very irregular and un- raiiable shape; if it is not correct copv then who is 10 blame TOT the errors and omissions that render u ,ror.hless aS an ofiiclal document:
 The first thing we notice about Il IS ,l,at if is uncertified to by any officer "ftbe county government. The law raIuires that the Recorder shall print and circulate copies of the Register, Inn, there isn't a tint on the lace oi ,bis publication to show that he ever had anything to do with 1t.
 Over one hundred of the names as nrinted are SO badly misprlnted as 10 make them unrecOgnizable and use less IS a record ,1.o
 The very first requirement oi the lo,,. is 0C. |. P. 231. See. A, ' Such antrv must show: l. The name at Iengtb." but fully one-fourth of the n,Tes as printed give initials only The most of the initials came from the county registering officers, names m Precinct l, being given at length anu tbis win doubtless be excused on the ground that the registering olhceIs have had no instructions as to lhelr dnues from anybody, and have hard lv received notification Of thelr ap- nointment in any instance. Ordinary foresicht on the part of the officers bavinG the matter in charge would have prompted them 10 print extracts from the law on every registration blank sent out.
 When a man dies or removes from the county permanently, there ought to be some way to get hIs name oil the Reqister. We know as fact that a few names have been cancelled on the Reglster. where the persons have died. and those do not appear; but there are still many names there whose owners have crumbled to dust, CT have removed from the county wears ago. We notice the name of one well-knOwn man who died months ago, and whose name IS now priuted. not once only, bat twice.
 And this leads Co another point. By some means or another, quite num- her of names. wcll-KnOwn in this county. appear on the register more than once. In some instances, It looks as though the parties had forgotten their previous registration, because we could not think of charging an ln- teutional wrong against them. But such things complicate matters, and make fair vote nearly impossible.
 The statute requires that the regis ter shall show the nativity of electors; the printed copy does not do this in several instances. If the elector IS a naturailzed citizen, or a person who has declared his intention of becom- ing citizen. the register must show " the time and place of naturalization or of declaring his intention to become a citizen But the whole purpose of this provision is defeated when the place k designated only by the name of the State. as " California, winch is the case with the copy before us It may be definite enough to give the year only as 1872, ' but the statute plainly contemplates the name of the town in which the naturalization occurred, if not, in deed. the name of the county also.
 But not only is this matter of name and place thus loosely treated, but there are on the register 234 names of persons born in foreign countries who, the copy ' shows, have neither been naturaliZed nor declared their intention Co be. The most of these were registered in 1876. when the law did not permit aliens Co vote except upon full naturalization; but many were registered in 1878, and few Of the same sort appear under date of 1880. Nine-lenths of this class were registered in Precinct No. 1, and the question is how they did it.
 Comment is entirely unnecessary upon these matters. Suffice it to say that there is easy room in this printed copy for the casting of from three 10 five hundred fraudulent votes out of the 32S3 names that are listed, not tO mention the 2000 odd names tha. have been added since September 27e It becomes necessary, in view of thest facts, that the election boards main tain the slrictest scrutiny of the ballot boxes under their charge on election day.