Santo Cristo, San Juan de Dios, Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Teresa, Paula, and San Isidro. The second district will embrace the wards of Punta, Colón, Monserrate, San Leopoldo, and San Lázaro. The third district will embrace the wards of Tacón, Dragones, Marte, Guadalupe, and Peñalver. The fourth district, the arsenal, Ceiba, Jesús María, Vives, and San Nicolás wards. (b) The Chavez, Pilar, Atarés, Pueblo Nuevo, Príncipe and Velado, and Villanueva wards will form the fifth electoral district; and (c) The sixth electoral district will be formed by Jesús del Monte, Luyanó, Arroyo Apolo, Cerro, Puentes Grandes, Arroyo Naranjo, and Calvario wards. II. In each district there shall be as many voting places as provided for in Article XVII of Order No. 164 of April 18, 1900. III. Each electoral district will nominate four councilmen. IV. Each voter is permitted to vote but for three councilmen, one correctional judge, and three municipal judges. V. The mayor, the municipal treasurer, and likewise the municipal and correctional judges, will be voted for at the same time in all the municipal district of Habana. VI. Article XII of Order No. 164, as applied to the municipal district of Habana, is modified as follows: No person shall be a candidate for the office of councilman in the municipality of Habana unless there shall have been presented to the municipal alcalde a nomination of such person, stating the office for which he is to be a candidate, signed by at least 100 registered voters of the electoral district in which he is nominated. For the designation of the other offices the provisions of Article XII will remain in force. VII. The time granted for the presentation to the municipal alcalde of the certificates of nomination of candidates is hereby extended for the municipal district of Habana to 12 o'clock of the morning of June 1, 1900. VIII. Twenty-four hours after presenting the petitions to which the previous article refers the mayor of each municipality will forward to the civil governor of the province a certified list with the names of all the candidates properly designated in his district, stating the office for which they are designated. The mayor of Habana will forward a certified list containing the names of the councilmen, stating the districts that have designated them. IX. The civil governor of Habana, bearing in mind the designation of councilmen by district to which this order refers, will cause the necessary ballots to be printed. X. The secretary of state and government will verbally or in writing solve any doubts that may arise in consequence of this order. XI. The municipal mayor of Habana will solve the doubts arising about the boundaries of the wards and districts of Habana. No. 212. J. B. HICKEY, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF CUBA, The military governor of Cuba directs the publication of the following order: The vouchers for payment of clerks of registration and election referred to in Order No. 188, series of 1900, these headquarters, will, after being made out on form "09 Finance Department" and certified to by the chairman of the respective board, be sent to the mayor of the municipality, who will certify to the barrio in which the service was rendered, giving also the number of barrios in the municipality. The vouchers will also bear the seal of the municipality. They will then be sent to the secretary of state and government, who will forward them to these headquarters, after the election is completed, for payment. No. 227. J. B. HICKEY, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DIVISION Of Cuba, The military governor of Cuba, upon the recommendation of the secretary of state and government, directs the publication of the following order: I. On the day of election electoral board at each voting precinct shall appoint a committee of one qualified voter from each political party represented at the polls to aid and assist those voters who are unable to prepare their ballots but who have qualified under different provisions of the electoral law entitling them to vote. II. Where there are no distinct political parties voters who for any reason are unable to prepare their ballots and who do not think it necessary to avail themselves of the aid of the electoral board in the manner specified in Article XXIV of Order No. 164, series of 1900, are hereby authorized to get any qualified voter of the same barrio to assist them to prepare said ballots as stated. The majority report on the election rules was as follows: RULES FOR THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. [Majority report.] 1. All the electors who can read and write are eligible; those disabled by the municipal law in force excepted. ELECTORAL DIVISION. J. B. HICKEY, Assistant Adjutant-General. 2. The existing electoral division shall prevail. The electoral section may be subdivided into subsections in case the number of electors should warrant such subdivision. Each ayuntamiento will, in view of the election lists, divide the electoral sections, when necessary, into subsections, each one to contain not more than 250 electors. The subsections shall be numerically arranged within each of the sections. 3. The actual number of councilmen now corresponding to each ayuntamiento shall also remain in force. PETITION FOR REGISTRATION. 4. The petitions for registration shall be made in writing by the petitioner to the judge of primera instancia of his residence, so as to be registered in the respective electoral list. The petitions shall contain: (1) The name and surname of the petitioner; (2) the condition of being a native of Cuba or of being naturalized, in either case stating place of birth; (3) the age; (4) the exact residence (domicilio); (5) time of residence in the municipality prior to the date of the petition; (6) grounds on which the petition be founded; (7) the statement that the petitioner is not disqualified by the law; those that should petition their registration on the ground that they have served in the Cuban army shall, if they are not native Cubans or naturalized, state their birthplace; (8) those unable to read or write shall make their petition by applying personally before the judge; (9) any resident that shall declare under oath that he is over 21 years of age and a native of Cuba, or naturalized, may ask in writing the registration of other residents in the same municipality, according to rule 4, and may evince their electoral qualifications as provided for in the following rule. QUALIFICATION-HOW PROVEN. 5. The nativity or naturalization, the age, the residence, the time of residence, the ownership of all kinds of property for not less than $250 in gold, and the circumstance of not being disqualified by the law, will be proven by taking an oath or affirmation on honor by the petitioner. In either case, the judge shall direct the petitioner to take the oath or make the affirmation, instructing him of the penalty of perjury. The ratification of the oath shall be made in writing and according to the blank form appended to these rules; said record of the oath shall be signed by the petitioner, by the judge, and by the clerk of the court in which the oath be taken. If the petitioner should be unable to sign, some other party present at the proceedings should sign upon his behalf and upon his requirement. 6. The electors petitioning their registration because of their ability to read and write shall present their petition in their own handwriting. The judge will require the petitioner to fill in his presence the blank form referred to in the preceding rule. 7. The circumstances of the petitioner having served in the Cuban army shall be established by exhibiting a certificate of license without unfavorable notes. 8. Each petition and the proofs belonging to the same shall be made a matter of record containing the number properly pertaining to the case. TIME FOR THE PETITION. 9. The petitions for registration shall be made during thirty running days, Sundays included, from 7 a. m. to 6 p. m. These dates shall start in Habana, Pinar del Rio, Matanzas, and Santa Clara three days after the publication of these rules in the gaceta, and in Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba eight days after the aforesaid publication. 10. The judge shall previously set a reasonable time to admit petitions of registrations from parties residing in municipalities located outside of the capitals of the judicial circuit, having in consideration the respective circumstances of each municipality, but in all cases within the time specified in the previous rule. The aforementioned time will be not less than three days in all cases. The judge will inform the several mayors of the designation of such time, in order that they may properly publish it. 11. For the purposes referred to in the preceding rules, the court shall in due time sit in the capital site of each municipality. 12. The residents in the municipalities referred to in the two preceding rules may also present their petitions of registration in the capital site of the judicial circuit, the provisions of rule 2 being applicable to them. 13. The municipal judge or judges of the several capital sites of the municipalities shall act in the place of the judges of primera instancia during the absence of these in all matters relating to the registration of electors residing in the municipalities to which said capital belongs and to the recording of the oaths or affirmations. CHALLENGES. 14. Every day, and at the early hours of the same, a list comprising the names and surnames of those that have applied for registration during the previous day, setting forth their conditions as natives of Cuba or naturalized, the residence and the grounds for the registration, shall be posted at the door of the court of primera instancia or at the office wherein the same should be sitting at the time. 15. Any resident of the municipality, who may be a native of Cuba or naturalized, over 21 years of age, may challenge in writing the registration of any one of the petitioners, provided the challenge be made within twenty-four hours and for a legal cause that shall be proven. If not able to write, the challenge may be made by personally appearing before the judge. 16. The challenger will affirm under oath that he is qualified with the required personal conditions, and this shall be made a matter of record in the blank form appended to these rules. 17. In all cases when the proof should not accompany the alleged cause of the challenge the judge will set a fixed period of twenty-four hours in which to produce the proof. 18. The petitioner challenged will be summoned immediately, including in the summons the name and surname of the challenger and the alleged cause of the challenge, requiring that he appear before the judge within twenty-four hours with the evidence of his defense. 19. If the cause alleged by the challenger should not be sustained by proof, the challenger shall be prosecuted for slanderous denunciation (libel) if the aleged cause should have been any one of the electoral qualifications that are to be proven by oath. TIME FOR DECISION. 20. The judge shall determine all requests for registration and challenges within eight days after the ending of the days referred to in rule 9 for the registration of electors. 21. Against the action of a judge there will be no further appeal, except in the case of criminal responsibility for prevarication. ANNOUNCING JUDICIAL RESOLUTIONS. 22. The judge will post to the public a list of all the first and second names of the petitioners whose petitions have been accepted, and another of those whose petitions have been rejected, expressing the reasons. The said lists will refer to the petitions resolved upon the day previous to the posting. REGISTER OF ELECTORAL INSCRIPTIONS. 23. The judge will form in accordance with his decisions a "register of electoral inscriptions" in every one of the municipalities within the territory of a judicial district. Regarding the municipalities comprising in their territories more than one court of primera instancia, each judge will form a register limited to its respective district. If the municipal district coincides in limits with those of the judicial district, the judges will form but a single register. 24. In the register will be entered in alphabetical and numerical order the names (both first and second) of the elector, his quality of being a Cuban born, or from another country, according to rule 4, expressing in all cases the place of birth, age, and residence (domicilio); time of residence; whether he knows how to read and write; the concept of the inscription and the number of the respective record. 25. The register or registers, as the case may be, will be closed eight days after the expiration of the time assigned to the judge for his resolution. As soon as the acting judge and secretary have numbered, marked, signed, and sealed them they will be sent without delay and duly guarded to the corresponding ayuntamiento. 26. The register will be public. PARTIAL LISTS. 27. As soon as the mayor receives the register or registers, as the case may be, he will convene the municipality to an extra session with permanent character. Within the term of three days the ayuntamiento will proceed to the distribution of the electors in the polling places, sections, or subsections, according to the established division and subject to the respective residence, making in correct alphabetical and numerical order as many partial lists as there may be polling places, sections, or subsections. The lists will comprise the names (both first and second) of the electors, age, residence, and grounds on which they ask for inscription. They will bear, besides, two blank columns for the vote. The said term will be extended to five days for the municipality of Habana and to four to the capital cities of the other provinces. 28. These lists will be immediately posted to the public in the city halls during two days, during which all claims limited to the correction of errors that may appear and the omissions incurred in forming them will be entered. The ayuntamiento will resolve, according to the records of the register, what it may deem right, in the limited term of two days. 29. After the errors have been rectified and the omissions corrected, the ayuntamiento will immediately resolve upon the printing of the partial lists, which will be posted in due time in the city hall and in the voting places. 30. Four copies of the electoral lists will be sent to each board, two to the civil governor of the province and two to the secretary of state and government. The municipality will keep ten copies of the lists. CONSTITUTION OF THE ELECTORAL BOARDS. 31. Eight days previous to the one appointed by the government for the constitution of the provisional electoral boards, the municipalities will assign within the respective polling places, sections, or subsections, if there be any, the place for the polls, taking care that annexed to the room where the voting table is placed, there may be another connected only with the first one. 32. Eight days previous to the one selected for the election, at 7 o'clock a. m., the provisional board will be constituted, formed by a member of the municipality, who will act as president, and four electors taken from those present-the two oldest and the two youngest-who will act as secretaries for the canvassing of the votes. They must know how to read and write. The municipal board will appoint the presidents. 33. If the number of electoral boards is larger than the number of councilmen the municipal council will appoint presidents out of the electors who can read and write, belonging to the electoral college, sections, or subsections of the respective electoral boards, until the required number is completed. 34. After the provisional board is constituted the election of a permanent board will be immediately made. This will consist of one president and four canvassing secretaries, who must be electors of the electoral college, section, or subsection, and who must know how to read and write. 35. The act of voting will take place as follows: The elector will give his name, and if he appears in the list of the electoral college, section, or subsection, will deposit by his own hand in the ballot box, which will be made of crystal or transparent glass, one rolled ticket, which will contain three names, one for chairman and two for secretaries. The president will say in a loud tone of voice, "The elector (here his name) has voted;" and two of the secretaries will note it so in the first of the two blank columns in the list with the word "voted." The president, if an elector, and the secretaries shall vote last. The tickets may be printed or hand written, but they must be precisely on white paper. The vote will be closed at 4 o'clock. Immediately after, the president, opening the ballot box, will announce that the canvass is to take place. 36. The canvass will be made, the president taking the tickets one after another from the ballot box. He will unfold them and deliver them to one of the secretaries to have them read in a high tone of voice and have them deposited on the table in the same order they are taken from the box. The other secretaries will keep the tally at the time. The three records will be compared, and in case of doubt they will be compared with the tickets deposited on the table. Every elector has the right to read by himself or to have the tickets read, counted, and compared over again with the record taken by the secretaries. 37. The doubtful tickets will be set aside and the canvass will continue until ended. The board will examine them after and by majority of votes will decide. In those tickets where the designation of chairman and secretaries is omitted it will understood that the first is voted as president and the two following ones as secretaries. When more than three names be written, the first three will be designated. The illegible ones will be declared void. Misspelled words, slight difference of name and surname, inversion of same or omission of any will be decided favorably by the board when there be no other name in the electoral place, section, or subsection that may be mistaken for the name written in the ticket. When two or more tickets be found rolled up together and they contain the same names in the same order, they will be entered as a single one. But if there is any difference of some value that may affect the offices, such tickets will be declared void. The tickets will be taken in consideration to compare the number of voters. 38. When the reading of the tickets is finished, after the doubtful cases are solved and the claims to which the resolution of the board may originate be admitted, every canvassing secretary will count over the votes obtained by the candidates, and if they agree, one list will be extended of those who may have obtained votes, commencing from the one having the highest number down to the lowest, without omitting any. If there is not agreement in the counted votes, a new revision and counting of tickets will take place and the result will be accepted. 39. One of the secretaries will read the list aloud, and when done the chairman will proclaim president of the electoral board, section, or subsection, the elector who may have obtained the largest number of votes, and secretaries the four who may have obtained the largest number for the office. After the proclamation is made, the tickets will be recounted in public and burned immediately after, except those on which some claims may exist, which will be annexed to the minutes. If the vote is unanimously in favor of two secretaries, the board will be completed with two electors appointed by the president and secretaries elected. 40. The chairman of the provisional board will give possession of their places to the elected president and secretaries, declaring the electoral college, section, or subsection constituted. 41. If any of the elected officers are not present at the end of the canvass in the place of the election, he will be notified in writing at his residence by the chairman of the provisional board, and if he does not appear in the term of an hour, it will be understood that he does not accept, taking as elected the one who may follow him in the list of votes, if he is in the room at the moment. In one or the other case the absent will be substituted by the president or secretary of the provisional board, each one in their respective offices. The secretaries will be elected by lot to take the places of those who have not come to fill their places. 42. On the very day of the voting the secretaries of the provisional board will write and sign the minutes relating to the election of the permanent board, in accordance with the model accompanying these rules, which minutes will be deposited in the office of the secretary of the ayuntamiento before noon of the following day, where it may be examined by the electors. RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ORDER. 43. The electoral table shall be placed where the voters may be able to see the act of depositing the nominations in the ballot box. 44. The president of the board will see that both the place where the voting is effected and the approaches to it be at all times unobstructed, so that the voters may easily go in and out of it. |