| Show A GOOD LAW shamefully THE registration and election elect ton law of this territory was enacted by the legislature in 1878 it was opposed by the liberal schemers who desired to gain by fraud advantages they could not secure by numbers the could find no specific fault with it they were secured in representation resen tation dpn the board of judges wherever they bad bad cast a vote and at the official count of election returns the registration off officers leers were the assessors with their deputies the county clerks resolved received the returns and the cou county bouris canvassed them the justices of the peace heard objections to the right to vote all these were regular officials and under bonds for the faithful performance of their duties they were also res men elected by the people and bona fide residents and property owners the rights of all parties and citizens were secured under its provisions and operations it is now claimed by certain liberals that it is an infamous law they say it was designed to make it impossible for any gentile to hold an office in this territory the know ansberto answer erio to that is in it was framed with the advice assistance and approval of some of the most prominent Ic liberals 11 in the territory including judges lawyers merchants and the governor the intent of its framers was to secure the purity of elections and the rights of all the voters its operations demonstrated thi sand no legal voter that we k enow etow of ever complained of anything in regard to it except that it gave no room for liberal frauds gentiles were elected to office under its provisions there was nothing io in it to prevent their election if they only had a majority of supporters we do not claim that the law was perfect but we do say it is as good as any election law in the country there is no better way to secure an absolutely secret ballot than the rules it requires the rho precautions it embodies against the voting of transients may cause so ne hardships to persons removing from one place to another and to those absent at registration times but these are more the result of recent improper administrations of the law than fault in the law itself which is thoroughly equitable and fair to all parties its imperfections would have been removed and the wrongs possible to be perpetrated prevented teil but for the governors veto of measures honet honestly itly desi designed gued for that purpose the evils that have arisen and that now exist have sprung out of the bhe provisions of the edmunds act the constructions that have been plaid upon by the appointed officers acting under it and the unlawful and eri criminal minal conduct of some of those officials under the utah statute as we have sho chov a the registration and election officers were elective under the edmunds act they are appointive by an appointed commission these them appointees are not usually responsible persons but chiefly individuals divi duals without property and some of them without character they are not placed under bonds if they are sued for damages by defrauded citizens they have nothing for the law to levy upon the jury lists aud the panel are so ao manipulated that there is no chance for justice against them if prosecuted so that frauds are perpetrated with comparative impunity and the petty officials defy the authority which appoints thorn them while that authority suffers its directions to be treated with contempt and pretends and avers that elections are fairly conducted one thing particularly should be kept in mind under the utah statute the elected justices of the peace having given proper bonds heard and determined deter ail ded objections to the right to vote from all their decisions there was an appeal to the higher courts there was never any complaint of injustice under their administration of this law but the utah commission acting according to their own construction of f the edmunds act have appointed persons known to be active in the interest of the liberal party and recommended to them by liberate liberals for that very reason they have been chiefly such persons as are described in the preceding paragraph they are not regular judicial officers nor under bonds and from thir decisions it is ruled there is no appeal so that they an ean and do defy law justice and the sacred rights of citizens rub rob legal leal voters of the franchise and strike off names namer from the voting lists as they please and there is no redress this condition of affairs to is admitted to be shameful even by those who seek to profit by it but they charge it to the law this is as shameful P 1 as the outrages for which it apologizes if the law were administered according to its letter and its spirit the troubles complained of would not exist it is the perversion and disregard of the law that are to blame the edmunds act requires proper persons son to he be appointed to perform these duties and that this shall all be done under the existing laws ol of the united states and of the territory 11 only judicial officers from whose decisions appeals are re allowed to the higher courts are proper persons person sI under the laws those who have been appointed are improper per every sense of the term the registration officers strong part kans are made the judges to 0 o hear and determine objections they ney are not proper persons ll 11 be ause as we have shown they are not regular judicial officers they are made to occupy the place filled under the law by the assessors the elected assessors were not judges jud gesto to hear beer objections to voters therefore the tee appointed registration officers should not act in that capacity they virtually sit ait in judgment upon their own proceedings they are constituted not by law but by this appointment courts that are independent of law of the rulings of lk higher courts of the power that Z appointed them and of the people all this is contrary to the tet al statute aud and cannot be charged against it with any particle of truth or consistency while the registration and election law was administered accord ing to its provisions no legal voters name was stricken from the registration list nor was his bis right to vote denied at the polls this 11 is a t sufficient answer to the falsehood of the liberal organ that the law was framed to put into the hands of the registrars the absolute power to strike off gentiles from the lists whenever they pJ pleased eased 11 let some gentiles name be produced that was improperly properly ina stricken from the list by any officer belonging to the peoples party it cannot be done and to clinch the falsehood all that is necessary is to point to the fact that the registrars are not empowered under the law to strike names from the lists at all that to is one of the wrong of th the e liberal perversion of the law there is no law fur for it it is done by improper persons and it is a flagrant violation of the law the frauds the robbery the criminality the unlawful striking off of voters names the personating of voters at the polls the changing of ballots by election judges and all the roguery and villainy perpetrated in election affairs have been the work of 9 liberals liberal officers condoned if not directed by liberal leaders apologized for ly by liberal writers and taken advantage of by liberals liberal candidates and the impudence which charges it to the law which it tramples upon and defies is almost equal in infamy to the crimes which it seeks to palliate every decent citizen of every class and party should show his bis aversion to the whole contemptible business by declining to train with the party and the persons that originated and now seek to perpetuate the wrong |
