The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-11-03

TO INSPECTORS
cFrom saturday,s Aayertiser.l }

| iho insPOotoiS VI Giectioh IOr tnlS
Island were in conference with Secre-
tary Mott-Smith for two hours yester.
day afternoon in regard to their duties
in connection with the election.
1t was regular session Of a school
for Inspectors Of Election. There was
very good attendance of election Of.
ficials. Secretary Mott-Smith took the
card of instructions which has been
prepared for the inspectors, and with
that as sort Of syllabus for his address
went very fully into the duties and
powers of election inspectors.
He said that the purpose of the elec-
tion law was to secure fair and un.
trammeled expression of the electors
choice of officials to be elected. The
duties of the election inspectors were
therefore, primarily, to aid in carrying
out that purpose. They were therefore
not there to put stumbling blocks in
| the way of voters or to make it harder
for voters to express their preferences
by their ballots, but in all ways within
the law to aid the voters. Bearing
this in mind they were not to seek
ways to thwart the purpose Of the law
or the expression of preference by the
voters by looking for technicalities or
creating difficulties. "You don't have
to look under every chip for the bug,
nor hunt all over dog for the flea, /"
said Mott-Smith.
With ballot boxes, ballots from the
last election as samples, and the ma
terial supplied to each voting place be-
fore him, Mott-Smith described the nat
ural, easy, practical way of conduct
ing the election from the time the in
speetor received his supplies until the
returns were finally made up and certi-
| fed to and returned to the Secretary Is
office as soon after the polls were clos
ed as possible
Taking up the matter of challenges
1 he said that the Supreme Court in
Brown VS.. Iaukea had said that there
was no provision under our statute for
challenge of voter. This was said
by the court particularly in relation to
challenges as to the qualification of a
voter. The fact of registration settled
that question. If the voter was regis
tered his qualifications could not be in,
quired into before the election officers
The only things that could be inquired
into were the identity of the voter with
the person he represented himself to be
and whether or not the voter was offer
ing to vote in the right precinct.
w. W. Chamberlain at this point said
that he had discovered number OF
errors in the printed lists of registered
voters. For instanced Samuel F Chill
lingworth, the chairman of the Boart
of Registration, was put down as in thu
: Fifth Precinct of the Fourth District
when as matter of fact he was in tn,
Fourth Precinct
Mr.. Mott-Smith said that a grea
} many of these errors would be correct
| ed by the board before election day
and those that were not corrected be
fore then could be corrected on elec
tion day. Mere Typographical error
in the spelling of names on the regis
t tration lists, which did not obscure tn
? identity of the voter, should not be re
= garded. For instance, there was a ty
biographical error in the spelling o
: Albion Il. Clark one of the inspector
Q of election in his own precinct. Tier
{ could be no question but that th
a name there was intended for Albio
i. Clark, and no question should
raised about it.
The inspectors of election have fu
power to preserve order at the polling
places and to so conduct the votin
V as to carry out the intent of the Law
q But here, as everywhere, the purpos
i, was to enable the election to be ca
u ried on in an orderly, fair and exp,
IS ditious way and not for the mere di
play of power.
In the same way, in counting til
ballots there was abundant power an
t. express requirement that ballots SHOW
e ing evidence of an intention to con
D. NIT fraud by containing marks {
Identification or otherwise should |
'' rejected. But where there was no ev
y dence of such intention, there was I
to reason to hunt up excuses for rejec
" ing ballots.
The folding of the ballots is a ma
ter regulated by law. Each ball
~ must be handed to the voter fold,
ig twice, and just how to fold them W
as shown. The voter must hand it ba'
re folded in the same way In the ca
- of the city and county ballot, whi
'' is twenty-eight inches long, folding Il
er ballot twice will still leave it sew,
1t. inches long, too big to putt into t
nd ballot,box. After it is returned to t
IN chairman of the board of inspecto
he can fold it enough more times
~ enable it to be put into the box.
nd The question was raised wheth
he three hundred or more of the city a
county ballots could be crowded in
one ballot t-box. sCounty Clerk Kalal
NJ kalani, who was present, stated II
in all precincts where there were TIN
hundred or more registered voters,
OF had provided two ballot boxes.