Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-10-26
HAVE RIGHT TO VOTE.
Members of FIfty-arst Regiment Are
Not Debarred.

Members of Flfty-hrst Regiment Are
Not Debarred.
Des Moines, Oct. 25.-The members
of the Fifty-first regiment, who are
over 81 years of age will be entitled
to vote if they return to their homes
prior to Nov. Z, and will have the OPP
portunity of registering on the day of
the election.
This question of the rights of the sol
dier boys to vote has been much de-
bated of late, some maintaining as they
are not registered properly, many of
them, and have been out of the state
for over a year, that their votes will
not figure in the coming election, but
this is an error. All the boys of the
Fifty-first, who are eligible electors,
may exercise the right of franchise if
they are in Iowa on election day, and
as the latest dispatch from San Fran
cisco gives Nov. 3 as the date of the
muster out, the regiment will, in all
probability, be home in time for elec-
ition.
Section 1,0ss of the Iowa code deter
mines this question and leaves no loop
hole for escape or chance for denial.
1t says:
'The registrars shall also be in ses-
sion on the day of the holding of each
election for the purpose only
of granting certificates of registration
to persons who, being electors, are not
registered. Such registration shall be
allowed and certificates granted only
to person who was absent from the
city during all the days fixed for the
registration of voters for that election,
or to a person, who being n foreigner
or toia person whose name
was on the preceding Saturday and in
the absence of such person stricken
from registration, and who on said.
election day shall prove to. the salts
faction OF said s.sgis trars that he is
a lawfully qualified elector of said
voting precinct. The proper statement
shall be signed and sworn to by the.
voter before one of the registrars, sup>
pored by the affidavit of freeholder
who is registered voter in that pre-
cinct. Who shall make oath to the quail
ification of the applicant as voter in
that precinct, and if the e,applicant be
one whose name was stricken from
registration, such affidavit of said free-
holder shall contain the facts showing
the right of said applicant to vote in
that precinct"
In citing the code in answer to this
question of the soldiers right to vote,
prominent attorney said:
'There is no doubt but that the
Fifty-first boys have the right to vote;
all those who are of. age. The fact
that they did not register on the other
registration days will not count, as
they were out of the. city, state aud
country. They have the right to reg
lister on election day and vote the same
as if they had been here all the time.''
This means that almost thousand
votes will be cast by the regiment, if
it returns to the state in time, and that
almost 200 votes will be affected here
in Des Moines. From present indica-
lions there is every reason to believe
that the regiment will be mustered
out and at home by Nov. Z, and all the
soldier boys of the Fifty-first, who
wish to do so, may east their ballots.
The boys of the Twentieth Kansas
will not be so fortunate as their Iowa
comrades in this matter of franchise.
The Kansans will be mustered out Oct.
2S, and will be at home before election
day, butSthey cannot vote then. S. S.
King, commissioner of elections of
Kansas City, Kan, and thoroughly
conversant with the election laws of
the state, said to a reporter:
1T is said that the Twentieth Kan
sas regiment is to be mustered out in
time to get home and vote at the COM
ing November election. But how are
they to vote? / presume large ma
jority of the soldiers reside in cities of
the first or second class. In all those
cities voters must be registered. The
law is explicit and makes no exception.
1t reads: No person shall be entitled
to vote at any election in any such
city who is not registered according
to the provisions of this act.
another provision of the law is that
no person shall be registered unless
he shall appear person at the office
of registration. And when must this
registration be done? The law on this
point is: 'The poll books in this act
provided for shall be open at all times
during the year for the registration
of voters, except that they shall be
closed for the purpose of registration
ten days preceding any election to be
held in such city, Thus BY no posi-
bility can the boys get home to regis
ter, and by no possibility can they
vote without registering. The provis-
ions of the law for those in The mill
tary service 10 vote will not apply, as
the boys will have ceased to he in the
military service. They will get home
about week too late"
The Iowa law differs from The Kan
sas statute in respect to registration,
and the ten-day limit does not apply in
both register and vote on the coming.
election day.