New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-12-16
VOTING FRAUDS REVEALED
ATTEMPT TO DELIVER MAIL AT REGIS
TERED ADDRESSES ON UPPER
WEST SIDE SHOWS MANY
ILLEGAL BALLOTS

The discovery that there had been extensive
frauds in registration and voting in the highly
respectable residence district west OF Central
Park was made by The Tribune some days ago
in a purely accidental way. Apparently several
hundred persons registered and voted illegally
in the district at the late election without de-
lection Presumably they were not residents OF
the district, and probably they were Tammany
workers who lived ami voted in other districts
OF the city and also voted in the district where
they had no business 20 be on the day OF election
The Tribune sent some mail matter TO voters
In the district some days ago. and the addresses
of the voters were copied from the registry lists
which were published in 1.-The City Record" be-
tween the last day OF registration and the day OF
election. Some thousands of the voters received
the mail matter but several hundred persons
who registered from places in the district and
voted at the election could not be found in the
district when the mail was delivered The cause
Of failure of delivery was given by the carrier
in each case and the record is sufficient to show
extensive fraud in the election in that district
Among the comments written down by the
carriers in explanation of failure to find the
voters addressed are few to the effect that
the voters have moved away since the election.
but in few hundred cases the carriers have
written mo such number" or vacant lot" or
no mouse lneTe OF NdCdui HOuoS' VA
church." or mot known"
There some Instances each year In which
voters register and vote legally from vacant
houses. or even from "a hole in the ground" but
1t is not to be supposed that there could be some
hundreds Of such cases In the district west Of
Central Park The election law provides that
citizen cannot gain or lose his voting residence
by reason OF his presence absence while he
is in the service Of the United States Govern
ment or is employed the high seas. Seamen
who have had residences in the city may
time to vote from the places where they lived
even II the houses have been torn down, and one
New Yorker who has been in the employ Of the
Government in Washington several years came
back to the city to register and vote last fall
from his former residence in Manhattan, although
the house in which he had lived was no more.
He was accused of Illegal registration when
viglant policeman discovered that he had regis
tered from "a hole in the ground" bat when the
case explained in the court the Magistrate
refused to issue a warrant and proclaimed the
right or the man to vote from his former resi-
dence
1t is not to be presumed, however that vacant
lots in the district west OF Central Park have
been the residences Of a few hundred Govern
ment employees or returned seamen- me ire
quency or registration from such vacant lots
recently Is indication that the police Of the
district failed utterly in the discharge Of their
registration were furnished TO the police, and
the law requires that the police shall investigate
and report upon every name on the lists. Infor-
nation OF Illegal registration discovered by such
investigation is required TO be sent to the State
Superintendent Of Elections in the Metropolitan
District.
About the time the registration completed
Superintendent McCullagh sent communica-
ton Of Chief OF Police Devery calling attention
to the law, and demanding a rigid investigation
OF the registry lists. When the attention OF Su-
perintendent McCullagh called the other
day TO the discovery made by The Tribune that
so many men had been registering from vacant
lots the West Side he expressed much in
terest, and said the information might be useful
in preventing frauds at another election, how
ever impossible IL might be TO find any OF the
persons who committed the frauds at the recent
election. His records do not show that the police
of the district reported any of the registrations
from the vacant lots
There was another form OF political fraud APP
parently practised in the same district, that OF
coloniZing voters for the election from other
districts. The record in the possession of The
Tribune shows that the colonization plan
followed at several Raines law hotels and
eral large apartment houses in the district. Men
went to the hotels" and to apartment houses
and in some cases even to boarding houses IN
the district. and hired rooms thirty days before
the election and remained long enough TO regis
ter and vote. or twelve men who registered and
voted from one Raines law hotel in One-hun-
Observation-Disclosures not one could be found
there after the election was over. and the record
IN each case Is written, there only for the
election" Ten men registered and voted from
one apartment house in One hundred and fifth
St, and each OF them now is mot known at the
house" The career Of one man is written as
follows. as given by the proprietor of a boarding
house in ne-hundred-and-eightee Game
a month before election and left after the cleo
tion owing months board" In one case the
record Is removed by the police" and that Is
the only indication that the police interfered
with the illegal voters in the district