The Pittsburgh Press (October 10, 1940)
POLL BOOKS’ BURNING BRINGS G.O.P. PROTEST
Trenton, N.J., Oct. 10 (UP) –
Hudson County’s superintendent of elections, William E. Sewell, has filed a brief with the State Supreme Court protesting the burning of the county’s 1936-37 poll books and asking the court to “take such action as would tend to prevent repetition of such reprehensible conduct.”
Hudson County is the seat of Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague’s Democratic political machine. Mr. Sewell is a Republican. The destruction of the poll books, disclosed when Mr. Sewell and a legislative committee sought them for an investigation, has become a major political issue in the state. Republicans, through Mr. Sewell, are trying to purge the Hudson voting lists of illegally registered names.
Jersey City Deputy Clerk Bernard J. Rosengard, has said he ordered the books burned “in accordance with a long established custom” of disposing of old records.