Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-04
In the Sixth Congressional
District.
THE MATTER INTRODUCED.
The Gerrymandered Ward The
Registers of 1884 and 1886.
More to Follow.

bare from time to time the lmprope
methods pursued by certain leaders o
the Republican party in order to secure
if possible, the important place for thei
candidate. Doubtless the fore.knowr
weakness of that candidate and the con
ceded strength of his opponent suggest
ed unusual efforts TO these wire-puilers
at an early stage in these proceedings.
To Legin at the very beginning, it has
been well known for year and more
past that the second ward of this city
was very badly provided in the way of
!, voting precincts. There are about 2, 500
voters in the ward. AT the opening of
the campaign there never mad been
more than two voting places in the
ward. The first ward was in much the
same bad way. Tue "White House"
precinct was known to contain 1000 to
l,40O voters. In view OF these facts
regarding this precinct, and others in
the city, certain prominent citizens-all
Democrats, by the way-io.wit: Ex.
Mayor Cameron E. Thorn. Joseph D..
Lynch, Refugio Bilderrain and Others
went before the Board of Supervisors of
this county (which is overwhelmingly
Republican, and pleaded that facilities
should be provided by which the citi-
zens might be enabled to deposit their
ballots with expedition and comfort. In
these pleas it was urged that at least
fifteen precincts be provided within the
limits of the city. Nearly all the vot-
ing places were known to be greatly
osercrowded, the Democratic precincts
notoriously and cru hingly so. Now,
for some reason or other, the Board took
but partial notice of this plea. Instead
4 of giving the relief asked for, they made
4 ten precincts, two-thrds Of the number
asked for. But mark further the meth.
cd of relieving the greatly overcrowded
! Democratic precinct known as the
"White House" precinct. By gross
/ gerrymandering of the ward, at least
250 more votes were thrown into
his already densely crowded dis
.ict. More than this no more incom-
p5ssnt election boards have ever sat at
polls in any city than those who pre-
sided at the recent general election IN
Los Angeles. In this very White House
#precinct the board was notoriously so.
N All day of that election at these polls
IA long line of citizens stretched from the
Hpoll box down the street to the corner,
Hthen bent round the corner OF CONNER.
&cial street and stretched considerably
the sidewalk on that street. The
Hwriter knows of several citizens who
Etook the trouble to time themselves to
Seee how long they were required to stand
fn line. The results ranged from AZ to
MS minutes each. The voters Of the pre-
einct in question are not as rule men
pf leisure. They are business men, me.
hanics and laborers. Such classes OF
eitizens cannot stand an hour in the
treets waiting for time to vote. All
lay long they came in half dozens, saw
hat to exercise their franchise meant to
vait nearly an hour. and not having
much leisure on their hands,
vent back to their various avocations.
When the polls closed at the end of the
lay there were nearly one hundred vot'
RS ON the spot who were shut out.
Ion, all the facts in the case it would
sc EN- as if deliberate plan had been
Iconcocted and carried out with too much
success to preclude Democrats from the
exercise of their citizenship The party
lost probably two hundred and fifty
votes by this trick.
REGISTRATION MATTERS.
The next matter noticeable in this ef-
fort to disfranchise Democratic voters in
Los Angeles county at the late general
election is the method by which the new
Great Register was made up. 1t is
law of the State that no person can vote
at any election in California whose name
is not on the Great Register of the coun-
ty in which he lives. Previous to the
hate election the last Great Register was
that of 1884. When it was announced
that new registration was to be made,
County Clerk G. H. Dunsmoor made
known that all names of qual1ied vot.
ers in Los Angeles which were found on
the Register of 1884. would be trans.
ferred to that of 1886. and that such
citizens need give themselves no further
trouble about this matter. Act
ing on this notification, citizens
already registered, trustad to find their
names on the new list. 1t is easier to
imagine than to describe the disappoint-
ment of the many voters who had relied
on this promise, aud discovered the day
of election that their names had been
omitted from the new list. The great
register scarcely could be seen prior to
the day of election go late was 1t in get.
ting out of the printers hands. Had
the names omitted been indiscriminately
of one political party or the other, little
significance would attach to such defect
in the great register; but when It is dis.
- ed that the very great majority OF
4 6Semissions were of the names OF
Democratic voters, the matter looks
like q malign purpose on the part OF
some one to carry the county for the
Republican party by means OF grossly
fraudulent methods. There is one pre-.
cinct in this county where as many as
ten Democratic voters were debarred
from the exercise of their suffrage
in this way. In the county there were
in all probability one hundred SO dis.
franchised.
The above comprises but mere intro.
duction of matters that seem to indicate
a predisposition on the part of some per-
son or persons in the Republican party
TO carry the election by fair means or
foul. In the next issue of the HERALD
will appear other elements in this propo.
sition which will put it beyond ques.
t;on that matters were SO managed as
sctually to debar from voting more
Democratic citizens than the majority of
many of the Republican candidates who
claim their election. In this the gravi-
men of the business will appear, and
This will show the exclusion from their
privileges of more Democrats by four
times over than the insignificant appar-
emit majority by which Gen. Vandever
a. oaaf in C,OnUraaa