The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-04-24
PURGE THE QUALIFIED LIST

Key West and the number of persons car
ried on the registration lists for this years
primaries and election.
a preliminary count by the census
bureau shows that Key West has a pop
ulation> of 1851, or only 80 above the of
5ficial tabulation of 1880. At the same
time County Registration Supervisor John
England reports that total of 6,423
names appear on the registration lists
Even estimating the total population Of the
county at $4,000, the number of qualified
voters would seem to be out of line with
average registrations in this county and
elsewhere Some authorities estimate that
the registration should not total more than
0ne-third CT the total population so that a
registration of 6,423 would be about nor
NAL for a county with a population of be-
tween 10000 and 100000 Nearly every
one will agree the cOunty's population is
not near 10000.
Political observers believe that the
Monroe registration lists carry the names
of a number of persons who have moved
out of the county since the last county and
state election, CIR even before, and that
the names of some residents who have died
are still carried on the rolls. Since NOR
ticians are required by law to report the
names of departed citizens to the super
visor of registration, it is to- be presumed
that Mr. England either has or soon will
purge the lists of those who have died.
Fresuming that 500 names of de-
parted citizens are stricken from the lists,
1923 names would still appear This, also,
is seemingly too high figure for coun-
ty with an estimated population of $4,000.
Therefore it must be assumed that the
names of many citizens who have moved
away still are on the lists. The supervisor
of registration cannot be charged with the
task of eliminating those names, because
he has no way of knowing who they are,
whether they wish to retain their legal
residences here or whether they are regis
tered IN some other city and county. APP
parently the state law does not require
registrars of other counties to report the
names of former Monroe county residents
registered elsewhere to this county's super
visor of registration.
Some time ago it was customary to
publish the qualified lists in the various
counties This served to inform bonefide
residents if former residents were carried
on the rolls Complaints enabled the super
visor of registration to eliminate the for
mer residents from the lists. Then pro-
cedure was changed, so that it was almost
impossible for the publishers to print such
lists within ten days of the election dates,
because there was so little time between
closing of the lists and the last publication
date. Thus that certain means of inform
ing the general public was ended.
In the present situation confronting
Monroe county one solution seems to be
alert election officials at the various poll
ing places. In each district there should
be men we'll informed of the residents of
the respective districts, so that an UNI
authorized person would be unable to vote
for citizen whose name appears on the
lists, but who has moved to another COM
munity.
The Citizen believes the county COM
mission and other county officials should
confer with Supervisor England in an eff
fort to purge the registration lists of de-
parted citizens, both the quick and the
dead. We must have honest elections re-
flecting the honest sentiment of the bone
fide residents, not election results based
on votes cast by imposters working for one
candidate or a small group of candidates.
There must be no stencil or fraud in this
election.
TpEAruEpV IN NNpWAV