The Savannah morning news., 1901-03-14
SIX THOUSAND VOTES
THIS WILL BE REGISTRATION FOR
SPECIAL ELECTION.
ACTUAL VOTE TO BE HEAVY.
REGISTRAR j. r.. DREAMER SAYS 1T
WILL REACH OR EXCEED 4,ooO.

Registrars Will Close Books at @
O'Clock To-day, After Which Time
No One VIII BE Allowed to Remove
His DisabiIities-If He's on the List
Then. He VIII stay oR-List of
Qualified Voters Now Contains o.
92I Names, but others Will Be
Added to It-PoIitical Fight Gets
Hotter and Hotter and Will Boil
on Election Day.
When the polls open for the special
election tomorrow morning there will be
5000 or more names on the list of quail
fled voters of Chatham county. OF this
number, it is estimated by Registrar J.
Robert Creamer, $500 win vote
The total registration, when the regis
trars started 10 go over the list, pre-
paratory to the election, was 6,S29 of
these /, 2S5 were stricken by the regis
trars from the lists for non-payment of
taxes or other disqualifications; of those
thus stricken from the list 81 subsequent
ly settled up their Indebtedness to the
county ana were replaced. When the
registrars closed their books, at o'clock
yesterday evening, there were 5291 voters
on the regitration books who are qualified
to vote.
The negro registration amounts to $50,
of which number seventy-eight have been
stricken from the lists for non-payment
of taxes or conviction of criminal offenses.
The negro vote amounted last night to
ISL
Registrars Creamer and Pease. with
Registry Clerk Sullivan, of the tax col
lector's office, were busly at work until
midnight last night and it is probable
that their labors will extend late into to-
night All of to-day the candidates and
their friends will be busy paying the taxes
of those voters who are now disqualified
and getting their names back on the lists.
No doubt is entertained that a sufficient
number will be replaced in this way to
bring the voting strength of the county
up to 5000, and the strong probability is
that it will exceed this figure.
At O'Clock tonight the registry books
will be closed, and those whose names
do not then appear on them, as qualified
voters, will be debarred from the exer-
else of the suffrage tomorrow Mr..
Dreamer, who represents the administra-
tion faction on the board of registrars,
and Mr.. William Pease, the representa-
tive of the Republican party on the board,
say they have had about enough of the
Job, and they will resign after the cleo
tion. There is too much work and not
enough Of either pay or glory in the po-
sltion to make them ambitious to continue
TO fill il.
They have done good work on the regis
tration list this year. The fingers with
which gentry the books were filled,
have all been disqualified. Ringers in
local political parlance, are the men who
are not entitled to register, through lack
of some of the requisites of citizenship
or residence, who manage to get on the
lists. To do this of course. requires some
little stretching of The truth, but in the
heat of political campaign both parties
are accustomed to regard this as a merely
venial sin.
Politics is boiling in Chatham county.
and 1t will get hotter to-day. Tomorrow.
If indications are good for anything. it viii
run over the edge of the pot 1t has been
many year since a special election, with
but two offices involved, has excited half
as much interest.
McAlpin headquarters have been estab-
hshed for the past day or two at Nichol-
son Hall, at the southeast corner of
Drayton and Broughton lane. Screven
headquarters have been at the law offices
OF Mr.. r. L. Colding. the chairman of
A"y' 0SieNeh campaign committee, but
to-day or Tomorrow morning early they
viii be removed to some favorable loca-
ton near the Court House.
The fight for tax collector is almost
as hot as that for ordinary and almost
as much interest is being taken in the
result. Between Mr. Wells and Mr.
thomson the race will probably be a close
one and neither candidate is expected to
win by any large margin.