The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1922-07-05
HARTFORD. KY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 5. 1922
thereafter, according to the terms

thereafter. according to the term,
of the act.
/ These classes of citizens com
! pose a considerable per cent of the
legal voters in every precinct and
they are deprived of the exercise oi
the right of suffrage at any special
election as designated above not by
any fault, neglect or misfortune, on
their part, but because of the terms
of the act in question.
81 cannot find any ground on
which to hold that the act does not
in relation to the classes of voters
mentioned and under the circum-
/ stances, not only abridge their right
of suffrage, but utterly destroys IT.
While Section 14s5, Kentucky Stat
4 utes, may provide registration for
a special election for those who did
! not register in July in cities and
) towns of 5000 persons and more
the act in question makes no provi-
sion for the registration for any spe-
:. cial election, except in the regular
1 registration in July. Outside the
areas, where the Constitution re-
(, quires registration, there is no op-
portunity for the classes mentioned
!, to. register before any special cleo
tion.
4. After the year 1922 only one
{ day is provided for the registration
/ for such qualified voters for the
November election, and the classes,
who upon the day of registration
I are performing public duties by
compulsion of law, as public officers.
the nature, Of Whose duties are such
that they are unable to attend the
registration; miliitiamen on duty,
jurors and ,such like, would be pre-
vented from voting, not because of
any fault of their own. but because
the law required them to be else
where, and the act in question has
made no provision for their regis
tration, and to such : an extent
seems to be an unreasonable regis
tration. Manifestly registration
which prohibits one, who is requtr-
ed by law to, be att place, where
he cannot register and thereby to
be deprived of the right of suffrage
for fourteen months thereafter, can
not be said to be reasonable regis
tration of the right of suffrage"
Judge Clay's Dissenting Opinion
Judge Clay, dissenting, said: 1--WE
are commanded by ruie of one
hundred years. standing to resolve
every doubt in favor of the consti-
tutionality of every act of the Leg
islature, and not to declare any act
invalid unless plainly violative of
the Constitution. Ones right to
vote is of little value if his vote may
be offset by an illegal vote. There
fore, it is just as important to safe
guard the purity of the ballot as it
is to protect the citizen in the right
10 vote and law which will ac-
complish that purpose should not
be lightly set aside.
THE act in question does not pro-
vide for registration that will be
effective only for short time, but
provides for a general registration
that will be effective for all time, !
to be, followed by annual registra-
tions of all qualified voters not
heretofore registered For the first
year the act fixes the first regis
tration days. and for subsequent
years only one registration day, 1t
is conceded that three days afford
the entire electorate. consisting of
about 100000 voters, reasopa-
BILE opportunity for registering. Be
cause of the efforts which will be
made to get the voters to the polls,
il is certain that practically all the
voters will be registered the first
year, and that in subsequent years
when only one registration day is
provided. not over 10 per cent or
about 100000 voters will be en-
titled to register.
Notwithstanding the fact that
many thousands OF voters will be
absent on the day of the election
because of sickness or other causes.
the trainers of our Constitution pro-
vided only one day for holding cleo
tions. II one day affords reasona-
bic opportunity for all tine voters TO
vote. and three days are sufficient