Smyrna times., 1900-05-16
KENToN HUNDRED ELECTION MUODLp
history OF the Act as Passed by the Legis-
lature and Its Intent.

"ie anu us Intent.
n A M. Daley, Secretary of the Kont
county Democratic Committee hos or
ranged what was apparently a compli.
c"'ed muddle in relation to CLAYTON as
voting precinct. At the last session
OF the Legislature an act was nassod
dividing Kenton hundred. which &c +bo
thlrd representative district of Kent
county, into two election districts. the
Northeast one in which the town of
clayton Is situated was No. 1. and tho
southwest one in which the town Of
henton is situated was No. .. This
act was approved by the governor on
march 9th, 1899. On March 18th of
tne same year, in the hurry of the lat
Ter part OF the session two acts were
passed attempting to designate the
voting places in the two Kenton bnp-
dred districts, but by some lack of
knowledge on the part of the person
VINO drafted the bill, or by accident
the voting place of the first election
district which was intended to ba Io-
Gated in Clayton was put in district
NO. IN the town of Kenton, and the
other act located the voting place for
tne second election district in the town
OF Clayton, when it should have have
been located in the town of Kenton.
Mr.. DAILY has carefully examined
the matter and finds that there is really
no difficulty in view of the constitr.
tlonal provisions in the new Constitn-
ton, and the trouble is avoided in this
way: The Delaware Constitution. arti-
Gle ., section 2, provides that 'Iegallv
qualified voters must vote in the cleo
ton district in which they reside for
thirty days prior to the election. " and |
lnasmuch as the acts fixing the voting
places for Kenton hundred undertook
to place such voting places outside the
election districts Mr.. DAILY has de-
clded that the acts are unconstitutional
Tor that reason as we'll as for the rea-
son that the Constitution, article ..
section 16, also provides that "no hill
snail embrace more than one subject.
which shall be expressed in its title -
Now the acts which undertook to fix
the voting places in the districts were
as follows: That which under
'ook to fix the voting place in election
Instruct No. 2 was entitled can Act
designating the voting place in the
FIRST Election District of Representa-
I've district No. of Kent county," 1
therefore, as the body of the act did not
n reality fix any voting place in that |
election district but in another district {
he title was false and misleading and
lid not express the subject of the act, {
IS the Constitution requires. The act {
which undertook to fix the voting /
lace In the Second Election District
'as equally faulty and therefore is un- L
for the same two reasons.
here is no difficulty about the whole b
natter If these two acts are unconsti- t
1tional, either in having the voters "
egistered or in holding an election, for Il
hapter 36 of Vol. XXI, Delaware s.
Jaws, provides that the registers shall S
convenient places IN these re- 81
Dectlve districts were they will sit to O.
'gister voters, and chapter 3S, p. 100,
rovides that where it is impracticabIe
} hold and election at place desig- -
ated an inspector may give proper II
otice of the place where an election is
be held and it can be legally held
ERE. t
-- nj