Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1910-08-03
ELECTION LAW TANGLED
appointment OF Judges And
Clerks For Primary Elect
ion Is Held Up
LEGAL OPINION ASKED
Counselor Melvin OF Board OF Supersi.
sors To Confer With Attorney Gen
eraI StrauS

More conflict and inconsistency has
been discovered in the Lee Primary
Election law, and after putting il up
10" Attorney General Isaac Lobe
I Straus the Supervisors of Election for
/ Anne Arundel county have been forced
10 sit tight and wait until that gen
I tleman gives an Interpretation of the
measure which, unless cleared up in
several ways, will tie up the making
of election machinery in every coun-
ty and precinct of the State.
After hitting the snag they went
TO work yesterday TO name officials for
the primaries, the Anne Arundel su-
pervisors were forced to adjourn over
until next week before risking any
appointments. In the meantime their
counsel. Mr.. r. P. Melvin, has been
directed to get an opinion from the
Attorney General.
Mr.. Melvin today arranged with
( Mr.. Straus for a meeting tomorrow
at the latter's Office in Baltimore,
when the question will be thrashed
out. While every confidence was had
in the opinion of Mr.. Melvin, the su-
pervisors thought it wisest to consult
with the States legal officer on ac-
count of the general application of the
law to every county in the State
One of the prime troubles in the
way of doubtful meaning of the law is
the eligibility of the registration
officers appointed in June by the su-
pervisors to serve as judges in the
congressional primaries on August 80.
The primary law specifically pro-
vides that the appointment of officials
for all primaries shall be done under
Article 33 of the general election law.
This provides that the judges and
clerks appointed for the preceding
November election shall discharge
the duties as such in all elections
when the general, special, local or mu-
nicipal, until the first Tuesday after
the first Monday in the year follow
ing their appointment. Under this
law it would seem that the election
machinery appointed for the last gen.
eral election in the State must serve
as whole in the coming primaries.
In the very same section of Article
33, however, il is made mandatory
upon the supervisors to name before
the first of July two chief judges and
registration officers for each pre-
cinct. This has raised the question
as to which registration officers and
chief judges shall serve in the coming
primaries named by the Super
visors in June or those who wou Id
otherwise have been holdovers.
Another point under discussion is
the manner of conducting the two
party primaries in the polling houses
and the officials necessary to do this
properly. 1t had been generally
thought that the primaries would be
conducted absolutely separately al
though in the same polling rooms. If,
as the' law seems to indicate, the
general election officials must serve
for the primaries too, the four judges
and two clerks will have to more than
hustle to keep up their jobs.
The regular registration books must
be used in identifying voters, and as
there are two of these for each pre-
cinct, two judges must be on this
work, while another will be the bal
lOh anu HdlNAC NnO SCbcs luS
ballots and two sets Of envelopes pro-
vides for the Republican or the Demo-
cratic voters. This leaves only one
judge to deposit the ballots in the two
ballot boxes, which the law provides
must be used. The clerks can be of no
assistance, as their duties with the
polling books will keep them busy
writing down the names of the voters
The whole question of the work
ings of the law when it is put into
practical effect is now under dis
cussiUn here, and the action of the
Anne Arundel supervisors in put
ting the matter up to Mr. Straus
has raised again the question of the
correctness Of his opinion that the
primary law applies to the congress
sional elections of this fall.