The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-10-09

! gresham will be recognized in this
County. Read the following Official
statement from the
RELATIVE TO THE
Duties of Officers and Voters,
as Rseui..Ep BY
New Jersey Ballot Reform Law,
APPROVED MAY 2s, 1890.
Compiled under the direction Of the Secretary
of State.
WIEN CERTIFICATES OF NOMINATION SHALL BE FILED.
All nominations, whether ~ convention or by
petition, shall be .~rtided in form prescribed
(~Sectiono ~ and "a pages IS and 10; see Forms,
pages s5 and s7.), and shall be filed as follows:-
For State officers and members Of Congress,
with the Secretary Of State forty days before
election;
This seems conclusive enough. A
| glance at an almanach will show that
the Republicans have not forty days
left in which to comply with this re-
quirement. Election Day is only
twenty eight days distant frors to-
day.
But does the "Book of Instruc-
tions" correctly interpret the law2 1t
is doubtful. Here are the precise
words of the statute
Certificates of Nomination = How and
when Filed.
so. And be it enacted, That all certificates of
nomination, and all petitions naming candidates
for any office to be filed by the voters of the
entire state, or any district or division thereof
greater than a single county, shall be filed with
the secretary of state, at least forty days pre-
vious to the election at which the candidates
nominated are to voted for; all certificates and
petitions naming candidates for general assem-
bly,, an d candidates to be voted for by all the
voters Of a single county, or more than a single
subdivision thereof, shall be filed with the clerk
of the respective counties wherein the officers
nominated are to be voted for, at least twenty
days prior to the election at which the candi-
dates nominated are to be voted for.
The Republicans will doubtless
claim that inasmuch a the Seventh
Congressional district embraces only
the single county of Hudson it comes
under the second provision quoted
above. and that they are required to
file their nomination with the Count y
Clerk within twenty days of Election
Day. 1t will be claimed in opposition
that a Congressional district is con-
structively a larger division than a
single county, that every Congress
sional district is liable to be made in
clude more than a single county,
that five out of the seven in
the State actually do include
more than one county, that all Con-
gressional nominations must be held
to be on exactly the same basis, and
finally that the Essex Republicans
have acknowledged the correctness of
the Secretary of States view of the
law by filing the Congressional nomi-
nation for the Sixth district with the
Secretary of State instead of with the
County Clerk of Essex although the
District Includes the County of Essex
only.
We do not pretend to say which
view of the law is correct. But we r
very certain our Republican brethren
have trouble ahead for them. When
they go to the County Clerk to file
their nomination, he may decline to
accept it and will point to the Secre-
tary of States instructions. When
they go to the Secretary of State, he
will decline, too, telling them they are
fourteen or fifteen days too late.
All these remarks apply with equal
force to the Jeffersonian nomination.
1t is more than probable that the Off
cial ballots will contain the name of
neither candidate. However, it will
be open to their friends to vote for
them by means of pastors.