Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1914-11-06
VOTERS WERE
INTIMIDATED,
SAYS NJ TAGUE
Election Commissioner De-
nounces Certain Tactics En-
ployed on Election Day.

William C. McTague. a member o.
the Essex County Board of Elections
in a statement issued today over his
own signature, unqualifiedly declares
that voters were intimidated at Tues
days election, and because of unfair
aaeties pursued many legal voters
were deferred from going to the polls
and casting their ballots Commits
eioner McTague's statement is as fol-
lows:
MANY voters were interfered with
and prevented from exercising their
right of the elective franchise in the
city of Newark at the recent election.
The right of suffrage is too sacred to
be defeated by an act for which the
voter is in no way responsible.
"Yes. the wholesome issuance of
Warrants for those persons that the
police, on their canvass of the regis
tered voters, incorrectly reported as
unknown or no. found, resulted IN IN
timidation and fear of arrest. Bona
hde voters. when informed that If
+hey attempted to vote they would be
Immediately arrested and imprisoned
Did not vote.
s. Like Property Rights.
'erhe right to vote is { IN a dig
nifty not less than any other of any
Z fundamental rights. 1t has been SAID
= BY judicial writer's, it is right
Which the law protects and enforces
: As zealously as 1t does property
: rights. The law maintains and yindt-
{ Gates it as vigorously as it does any
right of any kind which man may
5 have and enjoy. 1t, is commonly re.
: ferred to as a sacred right, that IS
rot to be made the football of party
politics.' 1t is a right removed from
1he field of mere legislative material
impairment. Regulation which I'M
pairs or destroys, rather than pre-
serves and promotes, is within con-
aemnation of constitutional guaran-
tees
1.-THE New York Sun in a recent
editorial commenting on needless
election arrests, says, Nobody de-
sires laxity in the protection of the
franchise, but there is a wide diff
ference between keeping out unit
and venal voters registering in de-
Iiance of law and the attempting to
exclude from the ballot boxes n
telligent men of honest intention and
sound general qualification by some
hair-splitting Interpretation of a
Statutory requirement. After all, the
first thing is to muster at the polls
every man who has a right to vote
and make 1t easy for him TO per-
form his duty to the State. There
Is no warrant in morals or in law for
a general policy of frightening good
citizens away from the polls or
penalizing their votes
No DomiciIe Distinction.
'sThis applies. should say as well
20 persons who happen to live in in
dustrial homes or lodging houses, as
to those who live in palaces. The
aetions of those over-zealous individ-
uals in charge of the investigation
While done, / am sure, for the pur-
pose of preventing fraud on election
day, worked injustice TO many honest
voters who were deprived of the right
to vote.
3. Many persons arrested on war
rants, when brought before the court.
we're Immediately discharged, II hav-
ing been proven that they were legal
voters. When they returned to the
voting places, the election officers
having been warned not to permit
them to vote, would not accept their
votes. The result was, that even
though those persons were indicated
at the bar of justice, they lost their
franchise.
1T was evident that in many cases
no investigation had been made to
discover whether or not the persons