Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-17
BUREAU EXPLAINS
REGISTRATION BILL
Easier for 7usy Man to Vote
Und; Projected
Legislation
ATTACKS BEFOG ISSUE

Attacks on the new registration bill
before the Legislature brought state
ment of the purpose Of the bill from the
bureau of municipal research today.
This bill, which revises the registra =
tion laws. will remove the present com :
mission. and attacks made on it have in
the opinion of the bureau clouded the
real value of the bill in making it easier
for busy citizens to register for cleo
ton.
The statement will allow n man who
fails to register on the regular days
because Of personal or business reasons
to get his name on the list up to
within ten days before election.
Explanation of the bill rs given out
today is as follows:
Thousands of our citizens are so
busy earning their living that they
altogether overlook their political
duties. The registration bill now be-
fore the Legislature will make it easier
for such busy men to register, and so
to vote.
"a bill Oh. X. No. 71S) has been
introduced into the Legislature, the
purpose of which is thoroughly to re-
wise Philadelphia s registration laws.
Because of the fact that this bill re-
moves the present registration commits
sioners from Office, it has been attacked
as a factional measure. 1t WILL how
ever. be unfortunate if this prevents its
enactment. for the bill proposes some
far reaching and much needed reforms
in our city's registration laws.
Must Have Reasons
perhaps the most important of the
provisions of the bill and the only one
that space will permit us to discuss
here is that contained in Section o..
This section provides that the board
of registration commissioners shall sit
daily in City Hall after the regular
registration days and up to and in
Guiding the second Saturday preceding
the November election for the purpose
of personally registering citizens, who
on account of illness. absence from the
city, business or personal reasons did
not find it convenient to appear at
their polling places and register on
the regular registration days.
The practical effect Of this section
is to give the citizen, who for any
reason has failed to register on the
regular days. another chance to get his
maine on the voters list! This is a
change in the law that is very much
worth while.
The Present Situation
AT present. unless a citizen is i'll
or absent from the city on all three
registration days. he must register on
one of those days and cannot register
later. and the registration days come
so far ahead of the election-always
more than a month and in municipal
election years nearly two months-that
popular interest in the election seldom
arises until registration is over.
''It happens that many thousands Of
good citizens, engrossed in their daily
duties, do not realize that election time
is coming on until weeks after the
registration days are past, and then
when they do become interested they
find their suffrage rights foreclosed--
they are not registered.
THE way to help the situation is not
merely to chide our fellow citizens for
failing to do their duty, but to make
the doing of it easier and more con .
venicnt. This the new registration bill
will do"
The Short Ballot Bulletin of the
bureau for February says of Philadel- :
phia:
"a volunteer charter revision com =