Year: 1872

Tho Resormers' Iror-Clad Election Law


Ousting tho New Board Of Aldermen.


Reform has at last shown its hand In what
1t intends to do for this benighted city in the
matter of regulating the registration of voters
and protecting them In the act of exercising
their right to the franchise. The manifold
and carefully drawn provisions of their
bill cover system which is evidently
intended to be as effective in procuring us
purified elections as the celebrated IRON clad
oath was supposed to leave no rebel the
width of needles eye through which to
wriggla into office.


In its very first section will be found an
order for new election for Aldermen and
Assistant Aldermen, to take place on the
second Tuesday in April of the pres
ent year. How the new Board
will receive this slash of the Albany guillo-
tine it is hard to say; but no doubt General
Cochrane will be found murmuring musingly
the old couplet:-


II 80 soon have been done for


What on earth was begun tori


The old Board will, however, relish the joke,
delighted to find companions in their misery.


The provisions of this bill are built upon
plan of registration which will remind people
of Paris under the regime of Napoleon, with
every man, woman and child ciphered down
to dot This parallel leads to the comparl-
son Of our old state of things with Paris
under the Commune, and it will be
doubtful for some tims which will be
the greater evil. In the first place,
the charge of the whole business will be
vested in new Bureau Of Elections, chief
for which will be selected by the Police Board,
81, 800 year. The city will be districted of
from the Assembly districts, each election dis
trict to contain as nearly as possible two
hundred and fifty voters. The inspectors of
elections are no longer to be the appointees Of
the Mayor, but of the Police Board. They
are not to be the mild-manuered personages s
who heretofore counted in or counted out
candidates at their sweet will or their masters
bidding and then relapsed into insignifcance
and sinecures, but officers appointed for q
year and compelled to serve under penalty,
and vested during election time with the grave
powers Of committing magistrates. There are
to be four from each district, two Of each
political faith. In addition are two poll clerks
for each district, one from each side of the
political Rubicon. These officers must be able
to read, write and speak English understand
ingly. The act of registration is numbered
with an oath to be administered to each per-
son. The most intricate part Of the reform will
be In the keeping Of the registration books
provided by the bill. One of these is to
be the Permanent Register" the other the
alphabetical" These books are to contain the
addresses and other particulars of residence
to minute degree of registered voters. Re-
movals of residence from one district to
another must be certified to by the
inspector before whom the last regis
try was made before the new one
can be entered. The Board of Health,
too, Is to supplement this labor of correcting
the permanent registers by supplying the
names of all persons dying in the city to the
Bureau of Elections. In addition to their
other powers, inspectors of election can order
any one to assist them in preserving the
peace, under the penalty of being tried for a
misdemeanor In case of refusal to
comply. A general registration and re-
districting is to take place every four
years-the frst this year. In the months OF
August and September, just In time for the
Presidential election. The next will be 10
1876. For the guidance Of inspectors the
rules regulating the reception and counting oi
votes are most exact and stringent provision
even being made for surplus Of votes
| in any box, by which one Of the
| inspectors is to stand with his back
| to the box and draw out the number of sur
been already counted, from the candidates
returns whose names appear on the ballots
thus drawn. The Board of Supervisors are to
| be the Board of County Canvassers. Three
| lists and tallies of the returns are to be pre-
pared-one to be carried to the Chief of
the Bureau Of Elections, one to the
| County Clerk, and the third to the
| Board of County Canvassers. The budget ol
terrors to all infractors of the Election law In
the shape of Imprisonment will carry small
comfort to the little lords of the sidewalk
who made living by running gangs Of re-
peaters For false registration or attempting
to falsely register the crime is called felony,
and the punishment from one to five years
imprisonment. For personating another voter
(repcating), or bribing or intimidating a votel
the same crime aud same penalty are to bt


counted. A fslon voting or attempting 10 vote


will be served in like manner. An inspecto,


caught ballot stufang or falsely counting will


be also felon, with Eve years confinement


before him. Taking false oath on election