Campaign Expenses and Contributions.— See CORRUPT PRACTICES Acts ; ELECTORAL FRAUDS; BALLOT; BRIBE; LOBBY; CONGRESS, ETC.
Voting Districts.— So that participation in elections may be easy, counties, cities and towns are divided Into small precincts or election dis tricts, each containing a few hundred voters and operating under the supervision of an elec tion board. Whether composed, as at different periods and in different States they have been, of counties, cities, townships, boroughs, wards of cities, or of precincts, election districts al ways indicate subdivisions of the State's terri tory marked out by known boundaries prear ranged and declared by public authority. As nearly as possible, city precincts contain an equal number of voters; they must be entire wards or contained wholly within one ward or one town and cannot be composed of parts of adjacent wards or districts. The election dis trict, however, is never used as a unit of repre sentation in local government nor as an admin istrative division in the conduct of municipal business. See Dismicr.
Polling The law designates the manner of the internal arrangements of polling places so that the voter will have perfect free dom in marking and depositing his ballot. Where the Australian ballot is used, the statutes require that polling places contain booths of sufficient size to accommodate one voter and so constructed that the voter will be screened while preparing his ballot Booths should be shut off by guard rails and no un authorized person allowed to go within these confines. In most States no official ballot may be taken outside the polling place. Official bal lot boxes are required at all elections, and prior to the opening of the polls these boxes must be opened for public inspection. During primaries and elections the polls are policed in accordance with the law (though the presence of a police officer at each polling place is not authorized by express statutory provision), and in some cases election officers may exercise the authority of justices of the peace and punish election offenders. Stringent laws have passed in many States to protect the voter from undue influence while in the act of voting. In most States electioneering is prohibited within a certain distance from the polling place; in some States polling places must be a certain distance from saloons; and in the advanced States saloons are closed on election days. Oregon requires that no "political badge, button, or other insignia shall be worn at or about the polls on any election day." Registration of persons possess ing the constitutional qualifications of electors may be and in nearly all the States must be officially registered on the voting lists in the districts wherein they reside in advance of each election, the period varying in the several States. If a State constitution or statute make registration a specified time before election day an imperative prerequisite to the right to vote, those not so registered cannot vote even if their other qualifications comply with con stitutional requirements. Nevertheless the courts have held several times that even if a person be not a qualified voter under the con stitution on the day the registration books are dosed, yet if he acquire the necessary quali fications before election day his vote cannot lawfully be rejected merely because he has not registered. While the constitutional quali fications must be left intact, without excisions or additions, the legislature may prescribe reg ulations to determine if the prospective voter possess the required qualifications; hence the passage of a registry law requiring registration as a condition precedent to the right to vote is not unconstitutional; where such a law exists an election held without such registration is void, but if the State constitution provide that the legislature shall enact a registration law and the legislature fails to do so, an election without registration Is valid. Arkansas and Texas do not require registration; in Oklahoma registra tion is required in all cities of the first class; in Kansas and Ohio in cities of the first and second classes; in Kentucky in cities of the first, second, third and fourth classes; in Washington in all cities and towns and in voting precincts with a voting population of 250 or more; in North Dakota in cities and villages of 800 or more inhabitants; in Maine in cities and towns of over 2,000 inhabitants; in Iowa and Ne braska in cities of 3,500 and 7,000 or more in habitants, respectively; in Missouri in cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants; and in all cities of Pennsylvania. In all incorporated cities, vil
lages and towns of Illinois which have adopted the election commissioner act of the State, un registered persons may not vote, but elsewhere they may swear in their votes if they produce a creditable witness to prove their electoral quali fications. In Rhode Island non-taxpayers are required to register each year before 30 June. In the larger cities voters must appear in per son before the registering officers, but in rural districts the voter often is registered by official declaration and the registration list is compiled by local authorities, subject to revision on de mand of interested parties. In order to prevent false registration some of the large cities have personal identification laws. The old suffrage laws of the Southern States and the compli cated registration laws practically eliminated the negro vote, and even under the recent suffrage amendments to the constitutions, voting by negroes is a difficult task since registrars must determine whether an applicant possesses the required suffrage qualifications, can °read the constitution, or understand it when read to him, or give a reasonable interpretation thereof,* or understands duties and obligations of citizens under a republican form. of govern ment.* Registry The election process is controlled by official (and usually compensated) boards of registrars, who must be qualified voters in the election districts wherein their duties are to be performed; their duty on the days designated as registration days is to pre pare lists of qualified electors to be used as check lists at the polls. If registration officers wrongfully and wilfully refuse to enter the name of a qualified elector on the voting list they are liable in a civil action for damages. The boards are usually bipartisan and are gen erally supplemented by watchers from the various parties which have nominated candi dates. At election time each party usually has one or more challengers who endeavor to pre vent election frauds by challenging those ille gally attempting to vote or those whose right to vote is considered doubtful. Generally, any citizen who believes an elector is attempting illegally to cast a ballot has the right to chal lenge him and to state his objections. In Massachusetts cities and towns, at specified times preceding elections, the registry boards are in session for thepurpose of allowing ap plicants to prove their possession of the re quired suffrage qualifications,. but in Boston the police, under the supervision of a special listing board, make a house-to-house can vass to enroll voters. Under the New York law of 1908 the registry boards in cities of over 1,000000 inhabitants must very carefully examine the voter, not only as to name, age, birthplace, address, occupation, years of resi dence in State and at address, and where and when he last voted, but also if be be married, if he occupy the entire house, or only a floor or room and which one; and they must obtain the name of lessee of the building, etc. Hence, if challenged when voting, a comparison of the voter's answers with the data previously sup plied will quickly and quite dependably prove his identity, which can also be more accurately determined by a comparison of signatures, since those who can write must sign the registry book. All lists of registered voters are public records and are open to reasonable inspection by the public.