The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-18

promise for a holly contested election.
Cuba never before had a complete
registration of voters, or anything that
approximated an honest registration.
The census of population, taken many
| months ago, was expected to form the
basis of this registration but proved
disappointment. This was largely
due TO the ignorance or incapacity o.
the enumerators But a carefully
drawn electoral law, fashioned after
the best statutes in this country, was
promulgated April l and great pains
were taken to get comprehensive and
ton of that law began April 10, since
which time the machinery has been
whirling First the voting lists for the
1869 barrios were distributed to the
various municipal alcaldes to be posted
in public places for inspection. About
the same time initial permanent regis.
| ters we're sent to the various munici.
palities. A few days later electoral
boards were appointed under a decree
| of Gov. Magoon and soon SO such
boards were organized and ready for
business. These included one board for
each of the 50 municipalities, one pro-
vincial board for each of the six pro-
vinces and also one central board, which
fcompleted the necessary machinery not
only for correcting the lists of voters
but for canvassing the returns of the
municipal and provincial elections just
| held and for canvassing the returns of
the Presidential election now in pros
lpect. The boards were nearly all com.
| pleted by May l and have had very
prominent part in the preparations of
| the last three months.
| The correction of the registration
| lists occupied much of the time in June.
There were many of these corrections
| but many changes asked for the NUM-
cipal boards refused to allow The law
provided for an appeal from the deci.
sion of these boards. Several thousand
such appeals were taken to audieneias,
or local magistrates. Pinar del Rio and
Mantanzas furnished many of these ap,
fpeals, large portion of which were not
allowed Santa Clara province also had
many appeals from three municipalities,
where the magistrates overruled the
electoral boards. The voting lists were
completed by the end of June. after
there had been an extension of the time
limit for making corrections. Over half
of the municipalities reported no ap-
peals at all. The limit for fling nomi-
nations also expired with the close of
June, so that the campaign proper has
been confined to the four and half
weeks of July.
For the first time in the history of
Cuba schoolhouses have been used for
polling places during the election just
held. AS the schools were not in ses-
sion, the use of the buildings helped out
materially, one of the difficulties hav-
| ing been to find suitable locations FOR
| the booths. In the meantime the bar.
rios, or precincts were divided by the
electoral boards into colleges, electors
assigned thereto, and collecting electoral
boards appointed. The equipment of
| the polling places was entrusted to
these collecting boards. The official bal
lots, printed on lemon tinted paper.
were delivered to the presidents Of
these collecting boards.
An election bureau was organized at
Havana at the very outset to keep in
touch with all these preparations and
also to hold occasional conferences with
the leaders of the National parties from
time to time. This board was presided
over by Col. Crowder and included in
| it's membership Col. R. L. Billiard, Lieut..
/ Edward A. Kreger and Judge Frank
Feulle: also Lieut.. Joseph K. Particle,
Lieut.. Charles S. Donaldson, and Lieut..
Charles T. Price. This board has been
pressing the various boards to complete
the work assigned to them. The tele
graph service of the island has recent.
! ly been organized, which enabled the
| bureau to communicate speedily with
every nook and corner of Cuba. These
wires have been kept hot with election
messages. Between April 20 and July
| IL the bureau had sent almost 5000
messages on election business and had
received over 1900 messages. The bulk
| of this telegraphing was during June,
when the messages sent out often were
as many as 300 daily. During the same
period the Election Bureau forwarded
/ over 10. 900 pieces of mail. Tt also look
| ed after the shipments of voting booths
| and ballot boxes and made provision
| even for the guard rails about the
polling places and the furniture and fur
nishings for the same as well as for the
| offices of the electoral boards. 1t also
paid out over $4,000 for election sup
| plies and allotted over 900 to the
various boards for salaries, office sup
plies, and general expenses. The entire
| cost of financing this honest election
enterprise in Cuba was, of course, much
more. The two sums given are only
items that go into the general total.
The preparation and printing of ballots,
| the payment of salaries for all the eiec-
toral and collecting boards, and great
number of incidental items will make
the entire expense several hundreds Of
thousands of dollars.
ERNEST G.. WALKER.
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