Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1905-02-23

the legislature under the initiative
shall be presented by petition, which
petition shall be signed by not less than
five per cent of the qualified electors of
the state" Again the law provides
I(Section 26, Political code): Every Pc
titlon to propose "A measure must con-
tain the substance OF the initiative law
desired. Your committee believes
the provisions quoted to be absolutely
mandatory and that the parported pc
ton, being SO entirely defective, as
specially set forth in the foregoing
! four findings, is an absolute nnllity
and constitutes no basis or foundation
for an affirmative legislative action.
Your committee further reports that
it has carefully examined the lists of
signatures which follow the foregoing
pages herein before specifically refer
red to- These signatures appear upon
lsheets of paper containing about thirty
names each, and are divided into four
columns under the headings of Name
"ReSidence," "Buofnea5, "Postotfice
Address. The signatures are num-
bered at the left, in red ink, from | to
1854. by an unknown hand and evi-
IDENTITY after circulation of the sheets.
In this regard your committee finds:
First. that large number of the
pages containing pnrported names were
not and coald not have been attached
to any petition, copy of the law, or to
any other paper or document whatever.
| Others of them have apparently been
at some time attached to some other
| paper or document, the character
| of which paper or document it is
| impossible for your committee to de-
termine and from which they have
been unlawfully and fraudulently torn
asunder by some person or persons to
your commit.ee unknown.
| Your committee finds, second. that
for the purpose Of preventing the per-
patration of frauds upon the people
and the legislature, and at the same
time TO furnish means for full identili-
cation of the signers to an initiative
petition and authorization of the Pc
tition itself, the statute law OF this
state (Section q Political Code) pro-
vides that "all measures proposed to
| the legislature under the initiative
shall be presented by petition, which
petition shall be signed by not less
than FIVE pc. cent of the qualified elect
ors of the state, and each elector shall
| add to his signature his place of resi-
| dence, his business and his postof1iee
A address, This requirement Of the
statute can mean nothing but that each
elector shall with his own hand sign,
| not only his name, but also his resi-
dence, his business and his postotfice
address.
The language Of the statute is that
the elector shall add to his signature,
can do this for him. Yet your commit
tee finds that great majority of the
signatures found in this purported pc
tition absolutely and entirely fail to
comply with this plain, mandatory and
imperative provision of the statute.
AS demonstrating this finding of Your
committee, attention is called to the
fact that upon large number of these
sheets which purport to contain sigma
lures of signers, the signatures are
written in pencil followed by the resi-
dence, business and postoffice address
written in ink by an entirely different
hand, entire pages being SO filed in by
some person other than the persons
who signed their names. Without
letting unnumbered single cases your
lcommittee finds most glaring forgeries
in this respect in the list of names
numbered 4l08 to 42l0, 1915 to 1894,
1882 to 4595, 1896 to 1910, 4712 to 4751,
4772 to 4796. 1890 to 51sl, $3.50 to 529l,
5374 to 5409, 5437 to 5470, 5527 to 1868,
567O to 5777, 577S to 5932, 594s to 59s7,
| 59Ss to 60s3. 6os4 TO 6134, 625S to 6212,
627S to 6427, GAG to 6504, 6436 to CAB,
D0Ot W Otto, u lOU W i1to. o-OI To ofL-.
s555 to S605, 1868 to 1894, S765 to 1854.
Your committee further finds that
these forgeries last mentioned consist
ed in some person other than the sign
er of the purported petition having
: altered the same after the signature
sheets had been signed by the pur.
ported signers thereof, by adding tc
the signatures of the signers their res
!, idence. busines and postoffice address,
or one or more Of the same; also il. the
names of various OF the purported sign
!, eas being written in by some one other
than the purported signer himself.
Your committee further reports in
this regard that upon, inquiry from
; numbers of parties who signed sait
lists, it is found that these additions o
residence, business or pestoffice addres
> were made by clerk in q law Office d
!, Huron, South Dakota, long after tb,
signature sheets of thepurported peti
a t;op had loft tho hnpHSS of tho S;nna,,