Election 1940: Poll Book Burnings Bring G.O.P. Protest (10-10-40)

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.

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Can you explain this in context? First of all, what is a poll book?

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It’s a register with a list of persons who are eligible to vote in a particular electoral district and who are registered to vote. Those can be of big help when streamlining voting on election day.

As for the situation itself, I have the source just for that. Read from page 68 on for context. Investigation of Presidential, Vice Presidential, and Senatorial Campaign Expenditures for 1940.

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=LJQp4MatLBsC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=poll+book+burning+new+jersey+1940&source=bl&ots=ppRdSGjYvl&sig=ACfU3U2BeAcCU-HwvbGalnFwIHgmf5Y-8Q&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=poll%20book%20burning%20new%20jersey%201940&f=false

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