The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-27
ID CREATE MORE:
 PLACES ID VOTE Dr. Lovelady Explains the Present Situation s. ". JOHNS LETTER Board of Revenue Has Hesitated Be- cause of Fear of Decreasing
 Jurisdiction of Common
 Pleas Court
s. W. JOHNS LETTER

pr. R r. Lovelady of the Board of Revenue of Jefferson county, speak ing yesterday of the editorial in The Age Herald urging the creation of more voting places in the city precincts, said that the board had long recognized the need for them and were in favor of establishing them. if it could be done
 But he said that the proposition had been referred by the board to lawyer and that they had been informed thai 10 establish new precincts would take away from the courts of common pleas some of their jurisdiction, which would be exercised in the new beats by jus tices of the peace.
 The board has authority said pr. Lovelady, "conferred by law, to change the precincts or create new ones. It has not the power, however. to designate more than two voting places in beat, for that number is fixed by law. We realize that al present there Is not a sufficient number of voting places. The large number of votes. cast in the city boxes entails too much work on the election officials in the matter of count
 ing, in addition to the fact that the voters are inconyenienced in casting their ballots.
 We have had the matter of creating new precincts under consideration be- fore, but were not in favor of the charge because we were advised that by doing so we would cut down the
 ,,1 ae to about one-half of what it now is; since their work is done on salary we did not think that the move would be justified from financial standpoint as it's result would be that they would do one half of the work that they are now doing, but at the same salary
 The board will take up the ques- ton again in the near future, and investigate thoroughly the proposition of whether the jurisdiction of these courts will be affected. You may say that the members of the board have expressed themselves as in favor of the change, and that it will be made if possible"
 Col. Sam Will John yesterday wrote the following;
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald
 In Saturdays issue of Age-Herald un- der title lne-"Demand for more voting places" you wrote, "rhe Jefferson coun- ty board of revenue should increase the number of voting places in Birmingham.
 Then, Homer like, you nodded" for you wrote The beats, or precincts, are established by the legislature and they cannot be increased or diminished, or their boundaries changed except of course, by Legislative enaetment,'P when the constitution has expressly deprived the legislature of the power, it heretofore had of legislating on this subject as will be seen by reading section 104. The leg islature shall not pass a special private, or local law in any of the following cases:
 "(29 Providing for the conduct of elections or designating places of voting, or changing the boundaries of wards precincts or districts, except in the event of the organization of new counties or changing of lines of old counties
 The power thus withdrawn from the legislature is lodged by law In the courts of county commissioners by section 340 of the code-who ''may...... establish. change or abolish election precincts and places of voting therein, and may change the boundary lines thereof. as the con veniences of the voters in such precincts, may In their judgment require"
 Section 3f of the code authorizes the commissioners court to establish two places of voting in the same election precinct for the convenience of the voters therein
 The annoyance of having to walt hours in order to vote has been felt and sev- eral times this wrong has been called to the attention of our board of revenue
 No good reason can be given for deny ing to the voters enough voting places to enable them to vote without waiting
 have been told that our board of rev enue had been advised not to increase the number of precincts in the old limits or Birmingham for fear that in a nlght two justices of the peace and con stable would appear, open courts and de- prive the court of common pleas of some of it's powers and jurisdiction.
  by the act establishing the court of com mon pleas expressly confers on this court exclusive jurisdiction as against all jus tices of the peace in civil cases defined In the first section of the act and con- cludes by abolishing the offices of justice of the peace and notaries public, ex- official, J. P. in Precincts 21 and 37.
 The act of March 22, 1911, establishing an inferior court for Precincts 10. 34 and l6 (East Lake, Woodlawn and Avon dale, substantially); abolished the offices of J. P and N. P. ex-offlcio J. P. in those precincts upon the expiration of the terms of those officers.
 The act establishing the inferior court of Ensley in lieu of justices courts, has been in force for four years and abolish ed the justice courts in that precinct
 These inferior courts have exclusive jurisdiction of causes heretofore within the Jurisdiction of justices of the peace, in six of the most populous precincts in the county, and in these precincts no justice of the peace, nor N. F. ex-officio J. P. can legally exist for day, and 1t Is a3sutd to contend that the jurisdic1 ton of any of these courts. established by law, in lieu of the courts of Justices of the peace, can be abridged or in any wise affected by the action of the board of revenue in changing the boundaries of precincts, or by establishing new precincts, for the court of common pleas will have jurisdiction over all the ter ritory of precincts 21 and 37, as it was defined at the date of the act establish ing the court and this Is true, even though the territory in precincts Fl and 37 is subdiyided into a half dozen pre-