The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-06-28
AN ELECTION MIDDLE
Intricate Difficulties Caus
ed by the Change in the
Freebooter Contest.
TWO SETS OF OFFICERS.
Conflicts Causei by the Ballot Re-
form Law Overlapping Dis
tricts and Precincts.

next election OF the Board OF Freeholders
OF this county from November, when the
State election is held, to the Arpil of 1892.
when the charter electionsp Of all--or
nearly all the cities and towns in Hudson
take place.
This change InvoIvesa whole series of
complications ana embarrassments.
which the next Legislature may puzzle
out a solution for,--but which the late
lanlented, in its hurry to adjourn, simply
Ignored. Probably the next Legislature
viii straignten matters out. As the var
ious statutes STAND, however, they create
very remarkable state Of things. In
short. il the elections were held without
further legislation. there should be TWO
dlstlnct elections held on the same day
with distinct polling places. distinct cleo
ton officers, distinct tickets, distinct reg
istration. distinct canvassers and distinct
expenses
Every reader will see at a glance that
the election OF Freeholders and the elec-
ton OF municipal officers belong to differ
ent classes Of elections under the Ballot
Reform law. The election Of Freeholders
IS conducted by assembly districts and
their proper precincts. The county clerk
manages it, aud the election officers to
County Board of Registration.
The municipal or charter elections are
conducted by Aldermanic districts or
other local subdivisions. The precinct
lines have no sort Of correspondence with
those OF the assembly districts Here Is
embarrassment the first. Two men living
and voting in the. same Alder
and vote in two assembly precincts.
Also the candidate who is running for
Freeholder in one Assembly district may
have voters in two or three Aldermanic
districts. Assembly district boundaries
sometimes run through the middle Of
Aldermanic voting precincts. Thus it Is
possible that at one polling place. If both
elections went on simultaneously. there
should be one set of candidates voted
tor one ofiice-say Alderman; and two
for Freeholder.
This difficulty will probably be over
come BY legislation authorizing redis-
tributi0n OF the election lines so that no
precinct will have district line OF any
description intersectiug it. The only
Inconvenience of this arrangement will
be that some OF the precincts covering the
debRtable ground between an Aldermanic
and an Assembly district line may have
TO be very large or very small In q word
the situation calls for a return to the
State OF things which existed a few years
ago when the Freehoiders used TO be
chosen in the spring.
TWO SETS OF ELECTION OFFICERS
But-thls difficulty is not the only one.
Underthe provisions Of the Ballot Reform
law the election officers for the Freeholder
contest should be appointed by the County
Board OF Registration and no person who
holds any other public Office Is eligible.
The same law requires that the officers
for the municipal elections should he APP
pointed by the boards of aldermen or
common council of the cities or
towns. and they. also, must bold
no other public office. Further,
under judicial decision rendered in the
matter of the Newark charter election
last year, service as q municipal election
officer debarred a man from serving as
county election officer and vice versa Tt
is therefore plain that it would not, under
the law as it now stands, be competent
for the County Board of Registration and
the several city and town boards TO select
the same set of men to conduct the two
contests coincidentally- There should, as
was set forth above be two sets OF men,
aud presumably two sets of polling places,
&C., &C., &c.
10 speak of sucn minor difficulties as
the endorsements Of ballots. the intrica-
cies of registry and tabulating blanks
and the like, would be superfious. AS
the matter stands the Ballot Reform law
of 1890 and the Freeholder election law
of 1891 are incompatible. and only new
and carefully studied act of the Legisla-
ture will serve to straighten matters out
ALLAN M'DERMoTT FoREsAW IT.
This Chinese puzzle was presented to
Chairman Allan L. McDermott of the
Democratic State Committee yesterday
with a request for his suggestion as to
how it might be solved. He replied:-
ssThe question raised IS not novel one,
although 1t comes with relation to
changed circumstances. In the course of
series of letters on the act known as the
Ballot Reform law, which was published
last year, called attention to the defect.
as you will see by an extract from one or
those letters" and Mr. McDermott drew
my attention. to the following extract:-
The County Clerks are to receive nominations
and print the tickets for officers elected by all
the voters of county or OF mere Imam single
subdivision thereof, while municipal clerks are
to do these things in cases Of election for and
within single municipalities the Legislature
probably overlooked the fact that there are
Boards Of Chosen Freeholders TO pc elected In
several counties some members of this board are
elected from single subdivision. Inc CHOSEN
Freeholders are, In nineteen counties, voteu TOT
on the days the other local officers are elect ed
In Essex and Hudson counties the Freehoid-
ers are chosen on the day OF the general NoVe1i-
Der election, and from Assembly dslric,s. N
these counties the municipal clerks couiu nov
supply the ticket, while in the other counties
the county clerks could not undertake the work
Fortunately there will pro9aply os uue olle mo
sen Freeholder elected in the State next Noyem-
her. TIe will be chosen to I'LL vacancy IN tne
Hudson BOARD caused BY DEATH and temporarily
fIllad nv fhe BOARD under an enactment or ~ asst
winter Amember of this Board must pc elect
ed from the Ninth District. which Is wholly
within the city of Hoboken. X the nominating
papers should be filed with the Clty CLERK OF
Hoboken they could not put the name OF me
candidate upon the general ticket whicn VII 10! Ds
voted in November, and although tns law luis
to provide for the case, or psrnaPs m M g,,s
vides for IT. the papers should cersainy ~ n s
with the County Clerk OF Tucson, anu tns
names printed BY him on the ballots to DO used
IN that dist riot
no CAUSE TO LOSE SLEEP.
When had read this, Mr. McDermott
resumed:-"A somewhat more serious
question IS presented when the defecs Is
considered as affecting the election o. an
entire board. The expedient suggested ior
Hoboken could not be applied 10 the case
of Chosen Freeholders TO be elected next
spring. The tickets TO be used at the
municipal elections then will De pre-
pared by the municipal clerks, Wniie 1ne
nominations of several OF the freenoiuers
will have to be fled with the County
Clerk There should be provision Ior
his certification Of these nominations 70
the clerks of the various municipalities,
as ID done where a congressional MONT
nation IL made IN a district lncluilug
several counties.
"If there was not any time for remedial
LEGISLATION, would suggest that the nomi-
nations for Chosen Freeholders be filed
with the County Clark, and chat he certify
them 10 the various municipal clerks.
An election under this procedure would.