| Show HIT BACK THE NAMES The Utah commission made a proper order on Thursday and one which should result in considerable gain of votes for the Peoples ticket The deputy registration registra-tion officers have been in the habit of exercising exer-cising arbitrary authority power in the matter of erasing names from the registration registra-tion lists They make or pretend to make a house to house visitation and as their visits are made at times when tho male residents are least likely to be at homo comparatively few men are found Tho registrar then proceeds to erase from the list the name of the man he did not see provided that man Is known to be a member of the Peoples party We never heard of tho name of a known Liberal being stricken off under such circumstances cir-cumstances There is a week during which the citizen mar have his v name restored provided he has been informed ormed of its erasure and is willing to waste a day in dancing attendance upon the insolent and officious registrar Scores of names have been striken from the list in this manner and when those bearing them have presented themselves at the polls on election day they have learned for the first time that they have been arbitrarily de privea of the right to vote although possessing pos-sessing all the statutory qualifications of an elector Just such a case was brought tc the attention at-tention of the commission on Thursday the deputy registrar having stricken from the list the name of an x > ld citizen who had been voting regularly who had not changed his residence and had done nothing t deprive himself of the right of suffrage Tho gentleman did not happen to be at home when tho registrar called and the latter took it upon himself to strike oil the name and deprive the citizen of the right to vote The commission corns mission very properly instructed the deputy to restore tho name and afterwards issued a general order covering such cases THE HEPALD has on many occasions called attention to the law in this matter and shown that the registration officer had no right to erase D name before he had satisfied himself that the owner of the I name had died removed from the district or had in some man er changed his status I in such I way as to lose his right to vote in that particular precinct Once on the c i list the name is entitled to stand until tbe t J crack of doom unless it shall I come to the knowledge of the registrar I regis-trar that tho individual has lost I statutory right to the ballot The new order issued by the commission virtually II vir-tually concedes the correctness of this position I now remains to be seen whether or not the registration officers will obey the commission and restore tho names unlawfully stricken from tbo list I will remembered that last winter the registrars regis-trars elevated themselves to pedestals higher than that occupied by the commission commis-sion higher ever than the bench of the judiciary itself Will tho present registrars regis-trars do as their predecessors have done defy tie power which appointed them defy tlie law and set themselves up as dictators dic-tators responsible to no authority above their own wills 1 Meantime every member of the Peoples party whose namo has been illegally stricken from tho registration list should at once apply to the registration officer of his precinct and demand that hisnamo bo restored re-stored lt its proper place and in the event of aTCfusal to comply with his request he should ask the commission for an order for the reinstatement of his name |
