Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-08-10
rHE Value oF PRECINCr REGIgTERs


The law Of this State wisely provides
that the Board of Supervisors in any
county may order the preparation of pre-
cinct registers. These are to be copied
from the Great Register and supplied to
precinct election boards, instead of sending
out the voluminous Great Register The
law is intended to check fraud, and to
make it far more difficult for repeaters-
the most effective agents Of vicious bosses
TO ply their nefarious business.
Every agency that tends to secure to the
citizen the free deposit and honest count
ing of his ballot, and the exclusion of
every ballot not entitled to be cast, ought
to be favored. There is good reason to sus-
pect the motive of any man who objects to
the precinct registers, since there can be
no objection raised to them that does not
make for the fellows who vote "early, often
and at several polling places" The law
now provides that no more than $50 voters
shall be grouped in a precinct. No one
except those who live and trade upon low
and vicious elements ever found any OBJ
lection to this law. But these objectors
have appeared here and there, and done
what they could in more than one county
to prevent the subdivision provided by the
law. They have, however, been signalIy
defeated in every instance, and the new pre-
cinct grouping is now uniform throughout
the State. 1t follows that there is to be
very much narrower margin for election
trickery hereafter. Where there are but
$50 persons entitled to vote in precinct,
it is very easy to detect the rascal who en-
deavors to deposit ballot illegally, for in
each precinct there are certainly to be
found enough men in favor of fair play
to detect the false pretense of one who
seeks to vote mlawfully.
The precinct register, therefore, is an
absolute essential to the proper enforce
ment Of the new voting apportionment for
precincts. Without it the difficulties of
preventing frauds upon the ballot-boxeS
wiz be augmented. With it, it will be
the fault of the people alone if they are
swindled out of the expression of their
VIII at the polls The San Francisco BlQ-
ietia says:
IN Presidential eleation fraud, for the most
part, can only be perpetrated on the outside A
President al ticket in California for instance is
a llSt OF elght Electors II is not easy on the
inside 70 substitute one Presidential elector for
another, or to read or the wrong one TO the
tally clerks. The work Of corrupting the ballot
hox in such contests is done by repeaters on the
outside. They get registered under different
names in several precincts These names they
vote an the day of election. Some of the more
enieruristng sort may get themselves registered
ID this way, But usually the names are got on
The rolls by the agents of the Bosses, who subse-
qcently ind the men who are to vote for them
But in San Francisco precinct registra-
ton IS permitted during five days after the
Great Register IS closed. With us regis
tration ceases when the County Clerks
lists close, and it is by far the better plan.
Our San Francisco contemporary admits
this, regrets that precinct registration
prevails there, and looks forward to the
general or Great Register system being
freed from the precinct supplemental reg
istration.
1t is to be hoped that the Supervisors OF
Sacramento county will aecede to the
almost universal demand for precinct
registers-that they will decline to order
them we do not believe, since the demand
for their preparation is fortified by such
powerful reason, and is wholly in the
interest Of good government and clean
elections. The only possible objection
that can be raised to the Board making
the necessary order Is that it will cost
something. But HiiS is triAing matter
compared to the great good to be accom-
plished. Whoever suggests cost as against
precinct registers. simply confesses that hi.
desire for clean elections and the elimina
tion of fraud at the polls, Is limited t.
dollars and cents. But Sacramento count,
Is amply able to expend the small sun
the preparation OF the books will call for
we say small, since whatever the cost th,
coun:er-halancing benefits more than re
spoud to it.
When the precinct registers are ordere,
throughout the State the vicious elemea
will be forced to resort to new tactics
They will have 20 register and locate dea,
men with such particularly that tn
corpses viii be pretty sure to ne discoy
cred 1t will not be possible to get NOR
than dozen spurious names in each grou
of names of $50 voters without making III
fraud 50 glaring, that to attempt to carr
it out will be boomerang operation.