Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1904-10-14
ASK VOTE ON LOCAL OPTION
Petition Containing Three Hundred
and Thirty-O Names Filed
in Polk County.

A petition invoking the aid of the
Local Option law in Polk county has
been filed in the office of the County
Clerk 1t contains 331 valid sigma
lures, or go more than enough to in
sure the submission of the question to
a vote of the people at the November
election.
The form of the petition is as follows ::
eve, the undersigned legal voters of
Polk county, Oregon, would respect
fully petition that on Tuesday, the 8th
day of November, 1904, an election be
held to determine whether the sale of
intoxicating liquors shall be pro-
hibited in Polk county as a whole !;
and each for himself says I have
personally signed this petition and
my residence, postoffice and precinct
are correctly written after my name"
The law requires that persons sign
ing these petitions must be registered
legal voters, and provides that 10 per
cent of the votes cast for Supreme
Judge at the preceding election shall
be sufficient for requiring a sub
mission of the question to a vote of
the people. At the last election in
Polk county, the total number of votes
cast for Supreme Judge was 2705, so
it will be seen that only 271 legal
signatures were required on the local
option petition.
The petitions presented the first of
the week contained 4O8 names, but in
that number were signatures
that were defective and illegal in the
law. Among these were many sigma
lures giving only the initials of the
petitioner, whereas the law requires
that the first name shall be written in
full. Many of the signers were not
registered, and others incorrectly
stated the precinct in which they re-
sided. Accompanying the original
petition were several single sheets
filled with names No count could be
taken of these latter, however, for the
reason that the law provides that all
of the sheets offered for filing shall be
attached together. County Clerk
Smith, after examining the original
petition, decided that of the 4O8 names
331 were valid signatures. This num-
Der is 60 in excess of the number re-
quir6d by law
If the local option law receives a
majority of the total vote of the
county, absolute prohibition will
be enforced in every precinct in the
county, regardless Of the vote of the
respective precincts. If the measure
loses in the county, prohibition will
still be enforced in the precincts that
voted for local option. Many voters
who cast their ballot in favor of the
measure last June say that they did
not understand this provision Of the
law, being under the impression that
each precinct would have it's say as to
whether liquor should be sold in that
precinct, regardless Of the vote of
other precincts. Many declare that
they would have voted against the law
had they thoroughly understood it's
provisions. Others who voted for the
measure are opposed to the actual
abolishment of saloons, and gave
their support to the movement merely
to assist the temperance people in
their efforts to bring the question to a
vote. 1t is also a noteworthy fact that
1926 voters did not express their prefer
ence one way or the other at the June
In the June election in Polk county,
the local option measure won out by I
a majority Of 506 votes. The only pre-
cincts voting against it were North
Dallas, Falls City and Rock Creek. I
The vote by precincts was as follows;
PRECINCT YES NO .
Douglas OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 40 Al
j ackson .............. ~ 36 |
Mccoy OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 46 70 s
East Dallas. ............... ..l26 81 {
South Dallas ............... 81 rs T
North Dallas s............... 80 IS i
...... ............... SO 43
Falls City observation-disclosures. 92 1OS
Rock Greek. IA
7