Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1918 — OH, YES THERE WERE ILLEGAL VOTES CAST [ARTICLE]

OH, YES THERE WERE ILLEGAL VOTES CAST

The Republican says that The Democrat editor is liable to be called into court to tell what be' knows about illegal Republican votes having cast in Jaspercounty. Well, to anticipate such sail a little, we will tell of one illegal vote that was cast at the election last week in our own precinct. E. L. Hollingsworth, who has resided in the 4th precinct for the past twenty years to our knowledge and was registered there this year, voted in precinct No. 3, notwithstanding that his name was not on the registration books in said precinct -—and no questions were asked. This, of course, was an error of Mr. Hollingsworth, and w r hen the board found that his name was not on their registration books they should have directed him to his proper precinct, for at least two members of the board well knew that „he did not reside in precinct No. 3 and they had no right whatever to accept his vote. Neither did he have any right to vote in any precinet other than the one in which he resided and ■was registered. Of course, he was entitled to a vote in No. 4, so, insofar as the general recult was concerned, his voting in No. 3 made no difference except that he had no right to vote there. We are also reliably informed that dozens of alien enemies--citi-zens of countries with which the United States was at war and who had only taken out their first citizenship papers—were urged to vote by Republicans and did vol. at the last election, notwithstanding the fact that the Republican attorney-gen-eral of Indiana and the board of election commissioners of the state had ruled that they COULD NOT vote, and Federal District Attorney Slack of Indianapolis said, according to the Indianapolis News: An »Hen enemy in Indi: na who

votes or attempts to vote at the elections Tuesday will be sent to a government internment camp without trial, L. Ert Slack, United States district attorney, has announced in a final warning issued on the eve of the elections. Mr. Slack repeated his warning note to politicians to avoid any efforts at obtaining votes b»- fraudulent means, again asserting that prosecutions under the recent act of the congress will follow any such attempts. German, Austrian and Hungarian alien enemies who have not taken out citizenship papers or wbo have taken out only their first papers, are not entitled to vote in Indiana, Mr. Slack said. A ruling to this effect has been made by the state board of election commissioners. The federal authorities have a list of aliens registered in the state and this list will be compared with the voting lists following the elections. In instances where alien enemies are found to have cast their votes, they will be arrested and interned at once, the district attorney said. Reports have reached Mr. Slack’s office from many parts of the state indicating that alien enemies are planning to vote Tuesday, acting on improper advice given them by politicians. Leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties have issued statements declaring their intention to do all in their power to prevent fraudulent methods at the polls tomorrow and co-operate with the federal authorities in obtaining evidence for the prosecution of any persons who attempt to buy or sell votes. As the Republicans were very anxious to have all alien enemies vote who had registered—-and there were .quite a number of them —we think the inference that they did not vote the democratic ticket is quite plain.