Bismarck daily tribune., 1908-05-15
Il COUNTY AUDITORS
DISCUSS PRIMARY ELECTION
LAW AND PICK MANY
FLAWS IN 1T.
MlNOT GETS THE NEXT REGULAR
MEETING AND BISMARCK
A SPECIAL ONE.

Fargo Forum: The next annual
meeting of the North Dakota Audit
ors association will be held at Minot
Auditor I. w. Healy of Bismarck,
Burleigh county, gave the association,
an invitation to hold a special meet
ing at Bismarck when the county
commissioners of the state hold their
meeting in that city next February.
and this invitation was accepted.
The association was a guest at an
elaborate banquet which was served
at the Commercial club last evening
at $50 and which was enjoyed to the
fullest extent by the members of the
association. Messrs. Dibley, Healy
Jenkins, Fabrick and Eich responded
to toasts. Following the banquet a
smoke socitl was enjoyed in the club
rooms. IL
The second day of the annual Con
vention of the State Auditors associ-
alton has been one of the most profit
able ever held, according to the
members present, as some of the mat
ters taken up, discussed and settled
at today's session are of great impor-
tance to the people of the state.
primary Law Questions.
One of the most important ques-
tions considered was the following:
How many names does a candidate
need on his petition in order to file
same with the auditor in new coun-
ties wheer no election has been held
This question was repeated several
times, or different phases of the ques.
tions propounded to the association by
the auditors were on the new primary
law. It seemed to be the almost unan-
imous opoinion of the auditors that
the primary election law as it is at
present is not a success As to the
question above, the majority of the
auditors were of the opinion that they
would require 200 signers, although it
was pointed out that in some of the
new counties there would not be that
many legal voters in some of the
counties on the Democratic ticket The
law states that there must be not
more than 200 names on the petition
and there was considerable discussion
as to whether the auditors should re-
fuse to accept petition with more
than 200 names. Some of the audit
ors were of the opinion that this law
was meant to read not more than 200
required, but the word required" does
not appear in the statute, and Presi-
dent Lewis stated that this provision
was made for the purpose Of pre-
venting some candidate from going
through the county and getting so
many names on his petition that all
other candidates would be kept from
being able to get enough. The law
will only allow voter to sign one pc
tition.
By rising vote the majority de-.
cided that they would not accept De-
tition with more than 200 names at
tached
Who Pays for Insane Patients?
Another question which was brought
up this morning was the matter of
the state law which requires that the
county shall pay to the state a sum
equivalent to the expense that the
state is put to in caring for the insane
patients of the county. The question
was, Should the auditor pay over this
sum to the state? Several of the aud
itors expressed the opinion that they
believed that this was double taxa
tion and most of them had declined
to pay this money. Practically this
same question comes up in regard to
patients at the home for the feeble
minded, and in fact Cass county now
has case pending with the state for
refusing to pay for patients in the
state home for the feeble mindedoa at
Grafton. The outcome of this case
will be watched with interest by all
the auditors, as it is practically a test
case.