The Forrest City times., 1912-09-06
ton. to select the county commission

l ton. to select the county commission
 CTS.
 The county commissioners are
 required. unGer The proposed meas ! ure. 10 meet at the court house in eaca county at 2 o'clock in tho forenoon on
 tas second Monday in August prior to i the general election and it is provid. 1 ed that TO proceedings shall be haG
 with less than .hree members present,
 until two of the members shall have remained al the place of meeting for an hour and shall have had the third
 member publicly called three times at intervals of twenty minutes. The law also provides that the counting of the ballots shall begin immediately upon the closing of the polls and shall be continued without interruption un. til the count g completed. The re turns are required to be made to the county commissioners within 2i hours after the closing Of the polls and the l commissioners are directed 10 declare the results as soon as the returns from all the precincts are received, but in no event later than the second day after the election.
 The petitions asking for the submis- sion of the proposed law to the peo- pie, was signed by about 15,000 voters. ! Those in charge of the campaign be. ing made in support of the measure. declare that it is not partisan move 1 ment but that the signatures of sev- eral thousand Democrats were attach ed 10 the petitions which were filed in the office of the secretary of state. It is asserted that the fight is one for honest elections and that the members of all parties are interested in it.
 RemrneI Gives His View.
 ''1 do not think that this could be regarded as partisan measure" said H. L. Remmel. chairman of the Re- publican state central committee, in discussing the matter Tt is one in which the people of all parties are concerned and many prominent Demo crats either signed the petitions for 
 expressed themselves as being in "a. vor Of it.
 The principal object of the pro- posed new ,aw i5 to give the two domi, nant political parties each the right to name ahe election commissioners and the election judges representing them This is of as much importance to one party as to another for it will take from the hands ef the state cleo tian commissioners the power 10 ap- point whenever they desire as county comm iss!oners. Democrats as well as Republicans. The county commission CTS. under he proposed law, must be selected from lists furnished by the chairmen of the two state central committees and this insures that the Democrats and Republicans alike will get the men whom they want as coun- ty commissioners.
 William Jennings Bryan, in a ,et- ter addressed to the Oklahoma con- stitutional convention, declared that it is not wise to allow the dominant par. 1 ty to select representatives from the minority party or parties. Each par ty should have the right to select it's representation; in no other way can fairness be insured he declared Where the dominant party selects the minority representation, the sclec- tion is too often made from those whe are only nominally members of the minority party. If the party organi. zations are allowed to select represen- tatives, the persons selected will not only be bona fide members of their respective parties. but owing their al legiance to their own organizations. they will be to be more trust worthy
 The other principal features of the proposed law are those which provide for public meetings of the various election boards at stated times and for the early counting of the ballots and announcement of the results
 These are provisions to which do not l believe there can be any objection from
 those who want 10 have honest cleo
 tions and they have been approved
 by many of the leading men of the
 state. regardless of their party affilia-
 tons We believe that there is de
 sire for fair and honest elections. The
 dominant party will alawys have two
 Of the thrce county commissioners.
 two of the three election judges in
 every precinct and all Of the state ] commissioners. Aside from the fact
 that each of the two dominant par.
 ties would be given the right to have ! judges and clerks Of their own se ] lection. there are no vital changes [ from the present laws