Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-20
OBEY THE ELECTION LAW.

A disposition is manifest in several
counties to ignore the election law in sew
eral particulars Boards of Supervisors
are said, here and there, to tip-tilt their
noses at the law, and to declare that they
will not obey it. If the Supervisors of
any county possess patent royal to sus-
pend at any time the operation of any
statute, the people would very much like
to learn what authority issued to them
their letters for such suspension of the
laws of a sovereign State.
The Supervisor who even winks at the
evasion of law, or who consents to nom
action, where the law makes action imper-
ative, commits deliberate perjury and
blackens his soul with lie to accommo-
date his convenience or his political needs.
The law of the State requires Supervis-
ors, on their oaths, to obey these man
dates of the sovereign commonwealth, to-
wit:
To appoint precinct election boards.
To locate no polling place in saloon or
a place connected Herewith, or any place
where spirituous, malt or vinous liquors
are dispensed.
To designate the house in each precinct
in which the polls are to be located
To appoint as election officers no one
who is not upon the assessment roll, and
who cannot read and write in English.
To place no one upon an election board
wno. within ninety days of the election,
has served in any official capacity in the
count the city or the State
Now the excuse for ignoring the law re-
sardll4. The appointment of election Off
cers $50 are upon the assessment roll, is,
tina 5 very difficult, and in some cases
im lie to get, in precincts, now limited
70 votes, enough men willing to
* . are eligible.
;ifficulty was foreseen by the Legis-
J.. nd provided for. The law making
al, " has enacted that willingness or
nav ngness to serve shall cut no figure
in the case; the citizen appointed, except
se is i'll or has some excuse good and suf-
Geient, must serve, and if he refuses and
fails to do so he may be subjected to a fine
of $500 or to Imprisonment in case of fail
ure to pay the fine. That is to say, the
law now declares that it is as much the
duty of the citizen to serve on an election
board as on jury, or as witness and that
the law will enforce election service Just as
it does jury service or duty upon sherif's
posse.
So that it is within the power Of every
Board of Supervisors to appoint good cleo
ton boards and to compel them to serve
The law cited is wise one-one in the
Interests of honesty in elections. 1t
ought to be strictly enforced, and any
supervisor who has the slightest regard for
his oath will be diligent and solicitous in
seeing the law put into operation and car
ried out to the letter.
We have had altogether too much of
intermeddling with the laws by evasion of
their commands in the past County and
municipal boards have over and over
again taken it upon themselves to ignore
the statutes or defy them, or deliberately
suspend them. In fact, we have not in
some counties we could name had an cleo
tion in strict compliance with the law in
ten years. There is no reason, however,
why the full letter and spirit of our cleo
tion laws should not be observed as strictly
as any other law of the State. In the
election now drawing near, let it be seen
to that the officers do their full duty, from
Supervisors to tally clerks, and that the
penalty for compliance be rigidly en-
forced