The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-01
PUT BACK THE NAMES.

The Utah commission made proper
order on Thursday, and one which should
result IN considerable gain of votes for
the Peoples ticket. The deputy registra-
ton officers have been In the habit of exer-
cising arbitrary authority and power in the
matter OF erasing names from the regis ira
ton lists. They make, or pretend to make,
house to house visitation, and as their
visits are made at times when the male
residents are least likely to be at home,
comparatively few men are found. The
registrar then proceeds to erase from the
list the name of the man he did not see.
provided that man is known to be a
member of the Peoples party. We never
heard of the name of known Liberal
being stricken off under such cir
cumstances, There is a week during
which the citizen may have his
name restore provided he has been in
formed of its erasure and is willing to
waste day in dancing attendance upon the
insolent and offieious registrar. Scores of
names have been striker from the list in
this manner, and when those bearing them
have presented themselves at the polls on
election day they have learned for the first
time that they have been arbitrarily de-
priyed of the right to VOTE although DOS
sessing all the statutory qualifications of
an elector.
just such case was brought tc the at
tention of the commission on Thursday.
the deputy registrar having stricken from
the list the name of an old citizen who had
changed his residence and had done
nothing to deprive himself of the
right of suffrage. The gentleman
did not happen to be at home when the
registrar called, and the latter took it upon
himself to strike off the name and deprive
the citizen of the right to vote The com
mission very properly instructed the
issued general order covering such cases.
THE HERALD has on many occasions
called attention to the law in this matter
and shown that the registration officer had
no right to erase a name before he had
satisfied himself that the owner of the
name had died, removed from the district
or had in some manner changed his status
in such way as to lose his right to vote
in that particular precinct. Once on the
list the name is entitled to stand until the
crack of doom unless it shall
come to the knowledge. of the regis
trar that the individual has lost
statutory right to the ballot The
new order issued by the commission viz
tually comedies the correctness of this
position. 1t now remains to be seen
whether or not the registration officers will
obey the commission and restore the names
uniawfully stricken from the list. 1t will
be remembered that last winter the regis
trars elevated themselves to pedestals
higher than that occupied by the commits
sion-higher ever than the bench of the
judiciary itself. Will the present regis
trars do as their predecessors have dome
defy the power which appointed them, DEFY
the law and set themselves up as die
tators responsible to no authority above
their own wills!
Meantime every member of the Peoples
party whose name has been illegally
stricken from the registration, list should
at once apply to the registration officer of
his precinct and demand that his name bere-
stored to its proper place, and in the event
OF areflsal to comply with his request he
should ask the commission for an order for
the reinstatement of his name.