1930] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 21

near enough to register these 20,000 or more persons, large num-
bers of whom live in communities.

In addition to this, there are around 400 Jewish election offi-
cials in Baltimore City, and a great many registration offices are
in Jewish homes. This is necessarily so in many precincts of the
city, especially as the officials are required to live in the precincts
they represent and the registration offices must be located within
their respective precincts.

None of these registration officials, whether Orthodox or Re-
formed, could serve at all on the first registration day, September
23, and no Jewish home could be used at all that day for registra-
tion, purposes. On the remaining three days, no Orthodox Jew
would be permitted by his faith to serve as a registration official
or to use his home as a registration office, except after dark on the
nights of the second and fourth days.

These circumstances would make it practically impossible to
either have or man registration offices in a great many precincts on
any of the present registration days.

If the registration days are not changed this year, then the
result will be the virtual disfranchisement of a very considerable
number of citizens, because their religious faith will not permit
them to register on the days now designated. This would be unfair
and unjust and contrary to our traditional policy of tolerance in
matters of religion. The only way to remedy this situation is to
change the registration days, and the only way to do this is to
change the law.

Several kinds of legislation are possible. The law might be
changed so as to authorize the Governor or the Board of Election
Supervisors to fix the registration days between designated peri-
ods, and thus enable them to avoid undesirable dates. Or the
law might be amended so as to authorize the Governor or the
Election Supervisors, when conflicts or emergencies occur, to sub-
stitute other days for those which the law prescribes.

These and other suggestions, however, involve matters of im-
portant policy, the wisdom of which is debatable, and they go
beyond the necessities of the present emergency.