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Show Salt Lake Taxpayers Cast Votes On Participation in Deer Creek Heaviest Balloting Exported to Come Late in Day; Some Confusion Develops De-velops on Eligibility Whether Salt Lake City is to participate in the Deer Creek reclamation project will be decided by the votes of approximately approximate-ly 10,000 taxpaying citizens, it appeared late Tuesday. r ' rJ if X f : I By early afternoon more than 3000 voters had cast their ballots, according ac-cording to a check of the polling places. Heavier balloting was expected ex-pected during the evening as polls will be open until 7 p m. Backers of favorable action are placing much of their hope for success suc-cess on heavy balloting in the last few hours of the day in the belief that the more citizens turn out the greater will be the chance for success. suc-cess. Members of the metropolitan water wa-ter district board had been hopl-ful hopl-ful that a vote of 20.000 would be totaled. .. Meanwhile leaders of the numer-oua numer-oua organizations formally on record rec-ord as favoring a vote of "Yes" on both propositions renewed their pleas for a large vote. - -"Every taxpayer owes It to himself, him-self, to his future prosperity, and to his city to vote today," Mayor E. B. Erwin said. "It Is no exaggeration to say that tha fata of the city, to a very large extent, la being decided today. Every 'Yes' brings a bigger, better and mora prosperous Salt Lake City a step nearer to realization." Prediction of City Attorney Fisher Fish-er Harria was that the vote would approximate 15.000. Observers pointed out that never before in any special city election. I however, had as many as 10.000 .votes been cast. Two years ago, when Salt Lakers authorized the formation of a met-Iropolitan met-Iropolitan water district by a vote of 52 IS to 4564. the total vote was only 9782 and there waa no taxpay-iing taxpay-iing restriction for that election. Most local special elections have ranged between S000 end 9000 votes. The balloting Tuesday morning appeared to be considerably heavier on the eastern than on the weatern side of the city. Some little confusion developed during the day as to Just who was i eligible to vote, despite the announced an-nounced regulation that to qualify ! it waa only necessary to have paid some kind of a property tax, whether wheth-er on real eatate, an automobile, furniture or other personal property, prop-erty, within the past year. Scores of questions on eligibility to vote swamped Fisher Harris, city attorney and also attorney for the metropolitan water district, throughout the day. i In most instances the difficulty 'simmered down to a question of fact the person who owned property prop-erty on which the tax had been paid I Conllnut on Pare Si van) t (Column Ona I "BUSIEST MAN" IN DEER CREEK ELECTION Fisher Harris. . .Answers vote eligibility queries ; I Va K ' v ?:.. n-' NEVER TOO OLD TO VOTE FOR MORE WATER Miss Lillie Knight "does her duty" in election DEER CHEEK ATTRACTS FIRST-TIME VOTER Wayne Shaw tells Mrs. Eva Taylor he is taxpayer CITY BALLOTING OMEER-CREEK (Continued from rufc One) was ruled a taxpayer and, if registered, regis-tered, entitled to vote. The fact that the 149 polling places usually open for a city election elec-tion had been reduced to 60 through a consolidation of districts caused but little confusion. had to be reminded that they were required to ask each person who presented himself whether he was a taxpayer. Several alien taxpayers were denied de-nied the right to vote because they, of coum, were not registered. Tfaa day lacked much of the activity ac-tivity usually connected with an lection day, for there were no party workers outside each polling place to buttonhole prospective voters vot-ers and distribute literature. - Increasing the hopes of backers of the project, despite the fact that favorable weather bad not brought out as heavy a vote as was expected la the morning hours, was the assurance as-surance that perhaps never before in city history has any proposed civic project had such nearly unanimous unani-mous publio support as has Deer creek. Favor Project Almn y"-f msjnr xiyk. political, politi-cal, labor and technical organxa-tion organxa-tion in the city is publicly on record as favoring the city's participation In this project. No organized group has announced an-nounced opposition to the proposal and the principal objections were raised anonymously. Two specific questions are before the voters. The first would authorise the metropolitan met-ropolitan water district to subscribe for up to 50,000 shares in the Provo River Water Users' association, which will represent 50,000 acre feet of the annual yield of the Deer creek project. The second proposal would authorize au-thorize the metropolitan water district dis-trict to contract with the government govern-ment or the water users' association or both for construction of a concrete con-crete aqueduct from the project reservoir in Provo canyon to Salt Lake City's distribution system. Final Plea Final plea for a heavy vote Tuesday Tues-day came from Governor Henry H. Blood when he emphasised that federal officials will "naturally take a greater interest in rushing the project to completion if they know it is overwhelmingly desired by the people concerned." Sons of the Utah Pioneers, at a apecial meeting in the Newhouae hotel Monday evening, heard Mayor E. B. Erwin and A. B. Irvine, attorney, at-torney, apeak in favor of the project, then adopted a resolution pledging "hearty support" to the project Following adoption of the resolution, resolu-tion, J. A. Hess expressed opposition opposi-tion to the Deer creek project and charged "local newspapers have been ailenced so no opposition arguments argu-ments have been printed." Mr. Irvine, after detailing the historical his-torical development of Salt Lake City's water problem, emphasized that Deer creek gives assurance of safety of supply and sound construction. con-struction. Give Answer Advocates of the Deer creek project proj-ect hastened to point out Tueaday. in answer to the Ogden city com mission, that ths plan calls for diversion of only unused or surplus waters from the Weber river for storage in the Deer creek reservoir. On recommendation of Mayor Herman Peery, the Ogden commission commis-sion Monday urged an investigation of the city's rigflts in the Weber river and Echo dam to prevent any but surplus water being diverted into the proposed Deer creek dam. The contemplated diversion, however, how-ever, will not conflict with existing rights. Deer creek backers insist |