The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1918-07-06
List Closes Today; Lone Republican On
Dotted Line as Representative Of
Party in County Race
SOLDIER VOTE is
PROBLEM TO BOARD
Law Silent On Method Of Getting Ballot
In Hands Of Fighting Men;
Friends 10 Act

Unless Grady county men who de-
sire to be elected to some office and
thereby become servants of the peo,
pie, get their names on the dotted
line today, they must hold THEN peace
until the next election, according to
S. c. Durbin, secretary of the Grady
county election board who declares
that the filing of candidates closes
today, and gives the law as his au,
thority
The records up to noon today indi-
Gated that in the fall election, the
Democrats and Socialists would have
it out, with the Republicans playing
decidedly a second fiddle, or possibly
a third for the reason that only one
republican had filed for a county of.
flee. This G. o. P aspirant is w
Smedley, who filed for county treas
urer. All other county offices are
blank as far as the Republican party
Is concerned There arcs however
q two Republicans filed for township
, offices, both in Washington township,
Caddo precinct.
Socialists Make Bid.
The Socialists are not making a
decidedly strong bid, as filing goes.
there being several Of the offices left
blank by members of that party
Among the offices for which no So
cialist candidate is filed, are county
Judge and court clerk. The party is
comparatively we'll represented in a
few of the county and township of
fices.
With the closing of filing today
copy for the ballots will be prepared
as rapidly as possible and will be
placed in the hands of the printer al
the earliest moment possible, Mr.
Durbin states. He could not give an
estimate this morning on when the
ballots would be ready.
Soldier Vote Problem.
One reason for the early prepara-
ton of the ballots, is the problem OF
getting sufficient number of them
in the hands of Grady county sol
diers, that they may name theiI
choice for the respective offices. Mr.
Durbin states that the job of getting
these ballots to the soldiers is a cun
siderable job, made more so because
of the fact that the law is silent on
the exact method of delivering the
ballots to Uncle Sans fighters. i
would appear that the law leaves
that point up to the various officials
whose job it is to conduct the elec
tions.
1t is Mr. Durbin's idea to have spe
cial ballots printed for the Grad!
county soldiers. That is, have print
ed on the face of the ballot, "Sol
dier's Ballot" that when the returns
begin to come in, the soldiers vot'
may be distinguished from that o
the civilian. There will also be al
affidavit attached and which the sol
dier must sign.
Method of Delivery.
The manner in which these ma
be delivered to the soldiers, is some
thing else again. The secretary c
the election board Estates that he car
not undertake to mail all these ba
lots to the various soldiers Thi
for several reasons: First, it woul
be a monumental task; second,
would be practically impossible fo
any one man to collect the addresse
of all the soldiers from Grady count!
For instance, l hear that a certai
soldier is in Camp Travis. The nel
time l hear of him, he is in Ne
York, or Georgia, or California, {
France" said Mr. Durbin. ut woul
be practically impossible for me
mail these ballots to the men in Sc
vice and have any degree of assu