Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-03-01
THE DISPENsARY ELECTION.

| If majority Of the citizens Of York
willie. who are qualified voters, or who
are entitled to qualify themselves to
l'vote, are opposed to debauching the
town with the unrestricted sale of
whisky, they must be up and doing. 1t
Is not necessarily fair and square ex-
preston Of the sentiment Of the peo-
pie Of the town that the dispensary ad
vocates are after. All they want Is
dispensary. The developments Of the
past few days leave but little doubt
on this point.
AS has already been published in
connection with this matter, the only
condition precedent to the calling Of
dispenary election in the town of York
vile is the presentation to the town
council Of a petition signed by one
fourth of the qualified voters Of said
town. But before such election can be
properly held under the law, there are
other important facts to be taken into
consideration. For instance, Section
"a of Act No. %, Of the general statutes
says:
Ninety days before the holding
regular election in any incorporated
city or town in this state, after the gen.
eral election of 1885, the mayor or in
tendant thereof shall appoint one dis
Greet individual, who Is q qualified cleo
tor of such Municipality, as supervis-
or Of registration for such city or town
whose duty it shall be to register all
/ al ffo Of
the incorporated city or town. The
municipality shall be entered in book
of registration, which at least one
week before the election and fmmedt-
ately after the holding Of the election,
shall be filed in the Office of the clerk
or the recorder Of such city or town,
and shall be public record open to
the inspection Of any citizen at all
times. Such registration shall be used
for all special elections in the munich
pality until 80 days preceding the next
regular election"
From this 1t appears very clear that
the 80 days registration referred to Is
especially intended for the succeeding
general election. From the fact that
such certificates are good only until"
80 days before the next general election
seems to warrant the belief that the
general assembly did not intend to
have elections during this period. In
the first place it is impossible to con-
ceive Of a condition that would be so
pressing, and since the old certificates
are clearly nullifed 80 days previous
to general election, it is difficult to
conceive that the general assembly
would knowingly cave open a condi-
tion that would make possible the sub
lection, Of any community to the snap
tended.
But this is not the whole Of the pres
ent case. In presenting the dispensary
petition to the town council the
other night explanations of advocates
and claims Of counsel were to this eff
feet. The petition is based on the 1900
registration, and contains the names Of
one-fourth Of the qualified voters in
accordance with that list Since the
law is mandatory that an election must
be called on petition of one-fourth Of
the qualified voters, and since we have
that one-fourth here, you have no dis
cretion in the matter. OF course we
will have to admit that the old regis
tration certificates became invalid
with the opening Of the books Of the
new registration; but since there must
be an election, and there will be no
other than the new registration availa-
BILE for use, we will use that.
Even If it be admitted that the town
council is required to call an election