The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1904-09-16

! favor of an election board for tn
State. to be chosen by the senate upoi
the recommendation OF the chairman
Of the State Republican and Demo
cratic executive committees, whit
should appoint an election board II
each county. who should appoint al
election officers. This year they ar,
In favor Of going back to the ole
sheriff system. What they will advo
cate two years from now no power
can foretell. It will doubtless b,
something which they think will Civ.
them some partisan advantage and
not anything in the interest of hon
est government.
What were the causes which led to
the adoption Of the law? Under the
old system one man had the power to
name every judge and clerk and cleo.
ton officer in the county. That man
was always partisan, representing
the majority in his county, and hence
the minority had no representation
and no voice in the selection Of these
officers. Under this one-man system
frauds were easy and frequent, and in
many counties in East Tennessee,
where every officer was Republican,
they became notorious and scandal
Gus. In the Turney-Eyans contest,
the undisputed proof showed that in
many of these counties the poll tax
and other laws we're openly and will
fully violated, and thousands of il
legal and fraudulent ballots received
and counted and the school children
of the State robbed of their just dues.
1t was to meet and prevent just such
wrongs as these and to give the mi
nority representation on the board
clothed with the selection of election
officers, that this law was passed.
Under this law there is one Repub-
lican judge and one Republican clerk
at each voting place, and it is diff
cult to see how fraud can be commit
ted without their participation. There
are some 1900 voting places in the
State, and when my competitor
charges the wholesale stealing of
elections in Tennessee, he not only
ISLANDERS every Democratic election Of
fcer, but he ISLANDERS $500 sworn
officials OF his own party
That this law has prevented fraud
in East Tennessee is proven beyond
the possibility of question, by the fact !
that in 1894 when Republican sheriffs |
held the elections, the Hon. III. Clay |
Evans, Republican candidate for gov
ernor, received, according to the face
of the returns, 56,747 votes in the |
counties of East Tennessee, while /
four years later, in 1898, when the
elections were held in each county by |
D board composed of two Democrats
and one Republican, the Hon. James
Fowler, an equally able and popular
only received S9,444 votes.
Both elections were held in off years
when no president was voted for, and
nobody ever commended that Mr..
Fowler did not receive the vote of
his party, or have counted for him
every vote cast for him. No, my fell
ow citizens, the trouble with our Re
publican friends Is that these laws
nave prevented them from stealing
elections in East Tennessee, and
here is where the shoe pinches
Does that party favor fair, non-parti-
an and honest election laws, and can
! be trusted to write an election law
Or the people of Tennessee? Let us
xamine its record for a moment
When the Democratic party came into
over in 1870, they did not find the
NV empowering sheriffs to appoint
lection officers on the statute books. {
h, no! They found there these laws
'hich shall read to you, and they
ere the last laws passed by the Re
ublican party on the subject of cleo {
ons in Tennessee:
THAT the governor of the State
lall within sixty days after the pass
&c of this act, appoint commission
registration for each and every
yunty in the State, who shall keep
Is Office at the county seat Of tho
)unty, and it shall be his duty to reg q
ter the names Of each and every
1alified voter, and to issue certih-
tie that such voter is entitled to the =
-ivileges of the election franchise" I
And not content with that, the Re
lblican party waited one more year :
Id then placed this election law upon Z
% statute books: =
ut shall be the duty Of the commits !,
oner OF registration of voters TO hold 4
elections now required by law to -
held by sheriffs, and that for that .,
Irpose he shall have all the powers :.
d rights that sheriffs now possess" i,
THE judges and clerks Of all cleo u
ms shall hereafter be selected and a.
pointed by the commissioner of reg n,
raticn in each county in the State" M
THAT the governor of the State be al
thorized, and is hereby fully en- az
wered, to set aside the registration as
any county in this State, or any OF
IT thereof of said registration, where m
shall be made to appear to the satis- oE
:tion of the governor, that frauds yo
d Irregularities have interviewed IN th
, registration of voters in such conn. Sc
The governor shall make known to
ch fact. and set aside said part, or an
ole Of said registration, where
uds are shown to have been ccm- M
tied, by proclamation. Sec. /, Acts s.