Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1920 — EVERY VOTER REQUIRED TO REGISTER THIS YEAR [ARTICLE]

EVERY VOTER REQUIRED TO REGISTER THIS YEAR

New State Law interpreted as Only One in Effect—Precinct Boundary Issue. Indianapolis, Jan. 29.—That every voter in Indiana will be required to register in order to vote at the election next November regardless of whether the voter has registered for any previous election or whether he baa since changed his residence, is the opinicu of Charles O. Roemler and WiUkim H. Thompson of Indianapolis who were recently asked by Edmund M. Wasmuth, chairman of the Republican state ‘ committee, to give their interpretation of the registration law. The attorneys say that the 1919 general assembly passed an act providing for the registration of voters. A separate act specifically repealed the registration law passed in 1917, Which had repealed the laws passed in 1915 and 1911. Thus the 1919 act is the»only one now In force. It makes It unlawful for any one to vote at the general election unless he has registered. i response lo the Inquiry concerning when and how voters must register to be entitled to vote at the November election, the attorneys detail the various steps required by the law. The law requires the registration board to hold in each precinct two regular sessions this year, the first on the fifty-ninth day before the regular election ini November and the second the twenty-ninth day before the election. Every person having the qualifications required of a voter rniay register. Any woman voter whose name has been changed by marriage, divorce or cowrt decree subsequent to the registration and prior to the election must file with the election board on the date of the election a certified copy of the court decree or certificate of marriage.

A person who Is unable to appear before the registration board in person may sign and swear to an application, or have it certified to by two voters living in the applicant’s precinct, and the application may then be delivered to the registration board, either by messenger or mall. The attorneys were asked when precinct boundaries may be established, altered dr changed. They say that the law specifies that every order of the board of county commissioners for such changes must be made not later than the March session, and the precincts shall remain throughout the year as they are established at such March session or previously. The 'notice required by law of the establishment of precincts or boundary changes shall be announced not later than ten days after the March session. In counties where there is a usp of voting machines where machine® were not need at the time of the passage of the act, there may be

changes in precincts before the first Monday in June, but only by combining two or more precincts into one.