Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-22
NEW REGISTRATION.
Shall 1t be Effective Against Election
Frauds?-The Precinct Registers.


The proposition to have precinct registers
for Sacramento, as suggested by the RECORD
UNION, in the interests of fair elections,
and for shutting out fraud, receives the
unanimous approval of all good citizens.
The expressions in its favor come from all
parts of the city, and with such strong
words of approval as to show determined
earnestness upon the part of tax-paying
and substantial voters as a means towards
ending election frauds.
If the new register can be so made I'D as
to contain only duly qualified voters, and
these can be grouped under the new dis
trictlng into precincts, so as to leave no
confusion, honest elections ought to be Sc
cured to the people.
1t must be assumed that every honest
man wants clean Great Register made
one that cannot be laid open to suspicion:
one that will not give the bosses a list of
cattle whose names their tools can vote al
will.
Now it is perfectly well known that in
the past names have been voted from the
Great Registers by others than their owners,
and names without owners have also been
| voted by the kind of sovereigns" who
attempted to capture the First and Second
w ard polls on the 18th inst.
1T the Assessors deputies, as they are
| now doing, continue to make up the Reg
lister without taking the definite and exact
| residence OF the elector, the utmost confu-
| sion will result, and the vote of Sacramento
county next fall may be the cause of in
| terminable trouble and the defeat of the
will of the people. We will endeayor to
make this clear:
/. The Great Register is now cancelled.
| Upon the new one the Supervisors alone
can base their action in creating new pre-
| cincts.
2. The law of 1887 (page 235) reads: Sec
! ton 1127-The Board of Supervisors of
each county must establish convenient
number of election precincts therein, with
such boundaries that not more than three
hundred and fifty qualified electors OF the
county shall RESIDE in any one precinct.
3. Let 1t be noted the words are qualified
electors, not voters who have voted. but
electors who are entitled to vote. The
Great Register always shows more names
than are voted at any election; sickness.
| indifference, absence, etc., keeping many
from the polls.
4. The Supervisors, therefore, cannot
take the last election returns nor the cam
celled register as a basis for creating the
new precincts. Even if they were author
lied to do so, it would prove futile, because
the old register does not give the residence
OF voters IN way to enable the Board to
form voters into groups of $50
5. Thus, there will be needed for Sacra-
mento city hereafter eighteen or twenty
precints- certainly not less than seventeen.
Now, suppose the plan of the Assessor is
followed out, or the old system, and 600 or
500 electors are returned as from precinct
| 4, or ~" how will it be possible for the
! supervisors to group them from such re-
turns as to comply with the law?
b. obviously there is but one way bv
which they can possibly do the work prop
erly, and those gentlemen have, we assume.
no inclination TO do other than their dutv
| faithfully-that way is to ascertain the street
number or definite residence of eve,u registered
etector. This they can only do from the
new Register when completed. If, there
fore, the Assessor and Clerk give them a
Register with only an indefinite description
OF residence, they cannot comply with the
! law-and 1t Is wise and good law. de-
manded by all the people, and passed by
the Legislature without dissenting vote
County Clerk Hamilton is recurring
electors to give their street number. If
there is none then the block in which thew
live, and outside of the city to state as
nearly as is possible where they live. We
are informed that this is not being done bv
the Assessor, but trust that the information
is incorrect Certainly that official has no
| interest in defeating the law and can only
desire that clean Great Register be made
up, and one that will enable the new pre
cinct law to be faithfully observed.
No elector who wishes to honestly exer-
else the sovereign right, will object to Civ
| ing his exact residence. This is required
IN San Francisco, and the same reason that
applies there applies here.
But there Is still another reason whv the
residence should be taken: it will enable
| fraudulent registration to be detected Sub
division of Section 1896 of the Political
Code requires the Clerk to enter on the
| register opposite the name of each elector
The place of residence giving the ward
and precinct.p 1t will be observed that
the parenthesis, like all parenthetical pas
sages, can be omitted without injury to the
sentence. 1t would then read 1.-The
place of residence'-not the general geo
graphical locality, but the place, the num-
Der.
But read the section with the parenthe-
Sis, and then it is to this effect He must
make the register show the place of resi-
dence giving the ward or precinct" Which
IS equivalent to saying, giving also the ward
or precinct That is, "Mr. Clerk, give the
electors residence, and put down also the
ward or precinct in which such residence
is claimed"
But, besides all this, for general election
purposes the old precincts are now abol
1shed by the Act of 1887 Quoted aboye).
The old precincts contained, in the CITY.
from 1000 to 1900 registered electors; the
new must contain not more than $50
Therefore, as already said, no ref
erence to precinct is giUing a residence
because no precincts now exist. Reference
to = ward y gives the Supervisors nothing
on which to base the new subdivision. Let
any one try to lay out the city into groups
with not more than $50 electors in each.
without list of residences before him. and
he will see how impossible is the task.
Finally, if fair play is desired, honest
elections, no repeating, no voting of false
names, and no stuffing of ballot-boxes, the
street number and definite residence To-
cality will be taken by the officials. If
they refuse to do this they not only violate
the law, in our opinion but they fiy in the
face of every man who wants the purity of
the ballot-box preserved, and to assume
that any good citizen desires the safeguards
of the ballot-box to be weakened. is to in