Arizona republican., 1917-03-26
Purification of the Ballot.

The decision of Judge Stanford on Saturday in eliminating Douglas precinct from is more important in effect will future elections than in it's effect upon the gubernatorial contest. believe it is decisive the latter. but that is only incidental to the main thing of ordering our elections whether for governor h. stable that the for whom the most votes honestly cast honestly counted shall be elected. It will be by Arizona tricksters for long time come that election frauds only do pay but dangerous to those who perpetrate them.
 The case of Douglas Precinct No. should be permitted to stop where it is now. The fight for the purity of the ballot is only partially It will not be complete until the men guilty of this fraud and the perurers who supported them safe behind the penitentiary doors. The mere discovery of an attempted fraud and the prevention of it's ton not going to deter future attempts. Those who will attempt them, if the matter is allowed here will naturally they will every thing gain and nothing o lose. n such a case likely to have Douglas Precinct No again any other closely contested election.
 There several facts in connection with the Douglas crime that really rendered it less dangerous than a future crime may be- It open and above board It had the doubtful of frankness It advertised by the character the engaged in it. Within twenty yfour hours after the polls closed it known all over the state that great fraud had been committed The week spent in taking testimony concerning 1t added nothing essential the common knowledge. It disclosed only certain de- tails of the crime
 The next fraud would naturally be a more spacious one and better covered than this There is another thing beside the punishment of the who tried steal the governorship that should be done in the interest of purity of elections Our election laws should be modified smplified and brought up to date. Their ambiguity and antiquity lend them to fraud. It pleaded by the men who took part in the Douglas crime irregularities they hitter the result of unfamiarity with their duties. The law should be changed reduce the chances that election officers will engage ignorantly irregularities that it will be plainer that when indulges in rregularty he is doing for purpose.
 Under present laws irregularities constitute the rule rather than exception. We suppose that if all precincts in the were contested in the courts charges that things done that the laws shall not be done and that other things required be done left undone, and these laws literally applied half the precincts in the would be thrown out
 We have doubt that many election boards were carelessly and illegally organized as the Douglas board and that election proceedings were loosely conducted though those precincts there probably intent to commit fraud and probably committed. In such the pre- cincts could be without grave injustice to the voters that would be disfranchised by the courts
 So our laws permit honest carelessness and ignorance travel along with criminal intent; that is to permit criminal intent under the mask of ignorance to perpetrate fraud. Whether or not the
 fraud is discovered depends upon the reckessness of the perpetrators at stage of the crime. They were fortunately reckless Douglas whether because of the fanced security of their intrenchments too free indulgence in intoxicants But sometimes, and generally, men who set to steal election, do not get drunk