The Oakes times. [volume] (Oakes, N.D.) 1906-current, 1912-04-04
New Law Requires Assessors
to Register Voters and
Make Affiliation.
Intent of Law Is to Keep the
Parties Separate in
the Primaries.

Dakota voters, according to party affili-
alton, such enrolment to be concluded
by May 19, and the enrolment books to
be used by the election of officers in
the state primaries of June. They
must accept the ballot to which they
declared allegiance in this statement
to the assessors.
Enrolment or registration of the
voters of the state, according to party
affiliations is a new feature, and was
established by the last legislative
assembly, becoming operative Monday
when the assessors are due to set
about their annual work of finding out
the value of taxable property. The
making up the list of voters is an added
duty for them, and one which gives
promise of presenting many unusual
situations to the assessor.
The registration by the assessor was
provided for by the last legislative
assembly as a means of keeping the
voters within the confines of their own
parties at the primaries. While the
method appears cumbersome it will re-
main for the test of the next two
months to determine its practicabhity
in reaching the desired goal.
The assessors are provided with
blanks fo- the voters to fill, and these
blanks contain spaces for the giving Of
the voters age, occupation, place of
birth, when naturalized if born a
foreigner, place of residence, postoffice
address and party affiliatlon. He must
sign his name to this pretentious
document twice, and it then goes into
the hands of the assessor, who, when
he has made his rounds, must make up
an alphabetical list of the voters,
according to precinct, giving the party
affiliation in each instance.
This big task must be concluded
before May l6, which is the last day on
which the assessors are allowed to
return the enrollments to the county
auditors. For making this registration
the assessors are allowed 10 cents for
each name, making the total cost to
the state, for registration, about
$1,000.
Refusal on the part of the voter to
give the assessor his party affiliation
eliminates him from the primary
election. He is given no voice in that
affair. For the voter who is unavoid-
ably absent from his precinct and could
not be seen by the assessor, a provision
is made whereby he may make an
affidavit, in form similar to that pro-
vided by the assessor, before notary
public and file it with the county
auditor previous to the primary election
day. Provision is also made for
further registration, according to party
affiliation, on any primary election day.
This law is designed to cover the
question which has been raised in con-
nection with the recent presidential
preference election: that Democrats
stepped over party lines and voted in
the Republican primary. Under this
law the voter, giving his party prefer
ence thirty to eighty days before the
election, must stay by that party and
cast that party's ballot in the primary.
The last primary election in this state
is not the only one in which it is
asserted the Democrats have voted the
Republican ballot, for in the 1910
general state primary, as we'll as in
the general state primary election of
1908, the same charge was made, it
being contended the Democrats had
entered the Republican primaries,
assisting in the nomination of G. A.
johnson for governor and afterwards
going into the general election to
defeat him. The assistance of the
Democrats, which in those cases went
to the stalwart Republicans, was given
with the end in view of placing before
the voters of the state the party
candidate who, in their opinion, was
least liable to prove a dangerous
opponent for their own candidate, who
had no opposition IN the primaries.
THE oAkEs TIMES $3.50 a YEAR