Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1911 — MUST REGISTER HEREAFTER IF YOU WANT TO VOTE. [ARTICLE]

MUST REGISTER HEREAFTER IF YOU WANT TO VOTE.

Law Passed By Last Legislature Will Determine Qualifications of Men Who Cast Ballots. Hereafter, by an act of the recent legislature, nobody but registered voters will "be allowed to vote at general elections. The following are the provisions of this new law in brief: In each year in which an election occurs, a registration inspector and two clerks shall be appointed for each voting precinct. The clerks shall not “both be adherents of the same political party.” The board of commissioners shall appoint the registration clerks at least five days before the’ May session of the board, upon nom T ination by the respective county chairmen of the two leading political parties. The registration board shall hold three regular sessions in each election year—in May, 180 days before the election; in September, sixty days before election, and in October, twenty-nine days before election. In registering a voter, his name and residence, where born, when her came to the United States, when and where naturalized, when and where he declared his intention, and when and where he resided since October, last, shall be stated, with additional memoranda, under the head of “remarks.” The room for registration shall be procured by the commissioners, and “shall not be one in which, spirituous, vinous, malt or other intoxicating liquors are kept or sold.” The auditor shall give ten days’ notice of the time and place of each session of the board of registration by one publication in two newspapers of the leading political parties. Notices shall be posted, stating, among other things, that “every yoter of the precinct is required to register at a session of the board at its May, September or October session, or he will have no right to vote at the November election.” At one of these three sessions of the board every male person who at the time resides in the precinct in which he applies for registration, and who will be of age of twenty-one years or upward at the next ensuing November election, and is a citizen of the United States, or if not a citizen of the United States, who, if he continues to reside in the precinct until the next following November election, will at that time have resided in the state of Indiana during the six months and in the United States one year immediately preceding such election, shall be entitled, upon proper application, to be registered in such precinct. No other person or persons shall he entitled to be registered. Registration shall not qualify one otherwise not entitled ta vote. _

The board of registration shall be in session from 6 a. m. until 8 p. m. and for one or two succeeding days w*hen necessary to accommodate the voters, on request in writing by flvo voters of the precinct.

An applicant for. registration shall make out a printed application, showing the facts above required to be registered, together with the place of his residence In the precinct, which may be stated by giving the “name of the owner or reputed owner of the real estate on which the applicant resides, and if inside a city or town, if it show the street and the house in which he resides, and if his residence have no street number if he show the character of the house, as to whether frame, brick or other material, one or more stories, on which street or alley it is situated, and on what side thereof, and the nearest cross street between jfhlch it is situated." Forms of application for different classes of persons are given. Every application shall be signed with the name of the applicant in his own handwriting, in the English language, or such other language as be can write, or by his mark attached to his name written by some resident of the township and witnessed by another. The persons applying for registration at the September session must show in what precinct, township, county, and the precise place therein they have resided since the May session; and for registration at the October session, they must show such place of their residence at the tfme of both the May and September sessions. Members of the election board shall each receive ii a day. Watchers from each political party may be present. False registration is punishable by imprisonment .in the state prison from one to five years and a fine not exceeding f 6OO, and signing the name without attesting the same as a witness is punishable by the same penalty. “It shall be unlawful • • • to register * • * the name of any person, unless such person has pre-

sented in his own proper person to such board while in session at the time provided for in this act for the purpose of registering voters, an application duly signed, and the violation of this provision is punishable by a like penalty. Neglect of duty in any other respect by the board shall be punished by imprisonment in the gtate prison not less than six (6) months nor more than three (3) years, and by a fine of not less than SSO nor more than SSOO, and disfranchisement for not less than five years.” That a Voter is not duly registered is made a ground for challenge at election, and no person except the one who registered shall be entitled to vote under any name in which registration was made. Registration for city elections shall be required in like manner in cities of more than fifteen thousand (15,000) inhabitants.