Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1912-07-10
SURE YOUR A FULL cITlzENs
Under New Laws and Regulations
Many Complications


AS result of an act passed at the
recent special session Of the Iegisla-
ture amending the Law relating to reg
istration of voters and the publishing
OF voters lists, large number of citi-
zens who have been voting for years
viii be disfranchised unless they take
out second citizenship papers.
The law provides, that for the first
general election after December l, 1912,
cities Of the second. third and fourth
classes and villages and towns In which
registry is required shall wipe their
registry lists clean, and that no name
shall appear upon the new registry list
unless the elector appears inperson be-
fore the inspectors and requests that
his name be registered Another re-
cent law made it necessary for every
voter to be fully naturalized.
1t is expected that this law will
strike particularly hard at what are
known as foreign-born sons of aliens
and that it will reach a high average
in counties like Vernon.
Under the laws of this country the
children or wards of an immigrant be-
come naturalized when he has taken
out his tull citizenship papers. How
ever, under the old practice imnai.
grants were allowed to vote on taking
out their first citizenship papers. This
did not make them full citizens; second
citizenship papers would be necessary
FOR that. Hundreds of immigrants,
however, neglected TO take out these
second papers and have been voting
ever since, some of them for fifty or
sixty years. No doubt many of them
have imagined all along that they
xvoro otffzono nf fhso oo,rrf~.y Nj o-l~,
were these first generation immigrants
who thus took out only their first pa
pers not citizens, but their children
who were born abroad and have lived
here practically all their lives are not
citizens, strickly speaking.
Commenting on this embarrassing
situation the Madison Journal says an
examination of the poll lists of that
city is said to show some startling
revelations in this respect. Many of
the most substantial and highly res
pected residents, pioneers and builders
of the city, are not citizens of the
| United States. In the list are the
names of many men who have held
city and county offices for years, who
have themselves served as election
officers and inspectors and have signed
hundreds of atfidavits by which Others
! have voted The same is no doubt true
of many other cities besides Madison
Even the legislatures have had their
quota of non-citizens who have assisted
I in the making of laws, and it is said
that Angus Cameron was elected United
States senator by the vote of an I'M
naturalized assemblyman row a resi-
dent of Madison.
Under law passed recently, second
citizenship papers will be necessary in
voting. Many Older residents who may
be challenged will no doubt have diff
ficulty in producing the evidence that
they have such and it is said number
of such residents who have voted for a
generation in the past have refrained
from voting at recent elections be-
cause the question of citizenship has
been raised against them. OF course
the enforcement of the law relative to
the proof of citizenship will rest largely
with the election officials, but the laws
governing election inspectors and other
officials is strict and penalties for wink
ing at the law are severe. This fact,
together with the new requirement
that electors appear in person to have
their names placed upon the registry
list, is expected to result in the weed
ing out of quite a number of old voters
unless they take out second papers and
the sons of such, IN many instances.