Arizona republican., 1904-11-15
PHOENIX. ARIZONA NOV. IS. 1904.
Needed Election Reforms.


 The tie in the vote for sheriff of Mar icopa county and the expensive contest which must inevitably ensue before a decision is reached by the courts will serve to emphasize the need of reforms in our election laws. Some necessary reforms at once suggest themselves one, to prevent frauds and careIessness in registration; the other, better to de- fine the eligibility of voters.
 Under the present system of regis tration there is wide and open door for fraud as well as carelessness. The county recorder, at the solicitation of the political committees, appoints a number of registration officers. These officers go out among the voters, take afidavits as to their citizenship, and turn into the county recorder ceFtih- cates of registration. An interruptions registering officer has a practically un- limited opportunity to stuff the regis ter. He can manufacture any number Of registration certificates or affidavits, containing the names of men who do not exist or who do not live in the county. These names go on the great register of the county, and then the work is ready for completion by politi- cal workers" With a confidential list of the bogus names, they can use the names for voting non-residents and hoaters. A Mexican, for example, can be voted in every ward of Phoenix, and in as many of the outlying precincts as can be reached, each time under a different name on the padded list, and it is next to impossible fer American challengers to detect the fraud.
 If one of these rowing registration officers is an interested partisan, it is entirely too easy for him to lose out of his pocket the registrations of citi- zens Of the opposite party. and these citizens learn too late that their names are not on the great register.
 That repeating and fraudulent vot- ing was practised in Maricopa county and in Cochise county there is already evidence at hand. No doubt there was more or less fraud in every county in the territory.
 The law permitting the appointment of deputy registering officers should be repealed. In its stead there should be provided a simple statute making every justice of the peace in the terri tory registering officer. Almost with out exception justices of the peace are conscientious citizens. They would not be guilty of padding the register and they would not be careless in making their returns to the county recorder. It would be the duty of every citizen to go before the nearest justice and register. Any man who places so little value on his franchise that he will not go to the justice and register should lose his vote. anyhow.
 In the matter of registration the law should provide, also, that, in all incor- porated towns, the citizen registering must give his exact place of residence the number of his house, or the lot on which he resides, and the length of time he has resided there. In the coun- try the citizen on registering should be required to describe the tract of land whereon he resides. And in all cases, of course, the precinct in which the voter resides should be stated in the affidavit
 As to the eligibility of registered voters, the law requires amendment in order to make it so definite and certain that the most stupid election board cannot mistake its meaning. As the law now reads, it means that the voter must cast his ballot in the precinct in which he resides, and that he must have resided in that precinct at least thirty days next previous to the cleo ton. This is the interpretation placed on the statute by the courts, and the wording of the law itself apparently admits of no misunderstanding. Never theless, many election boards in the late election did not so understand it. Large numbers of citizens were per mitted to vote in precincts in which they did not reside. It was merely nec- essary, in the minds of the election boards, that the voter offering his bal lot should have been registered some where in the county.
 The reforms here suggested should commend themselves to all honest leg islators, and we apprehend that there will be no formidable opposition to their enactment in the coming legis- lature.