Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/92

 Rh imposed upon public officers who, by failing to faithfully and strictly fulfill the obligations imposed by this law or by the provisions that may be adopted for its execution, are accessory to any of the following acts or omissions:

(1) To any failure to prepare with accuracy the lists of electors, whether preliminary or definitive, or to exhibit the same publicly during the proper time and in the proper place.

(2) To any alteration of the day, hour, or place in which any public business is to be done, or to the method of its designations leading to error.

(3) To any fraudulent manipulations in matters relating to the preparation of the census, the organization of electoral boards or colleges, the voting, the resolutions or ballotings, and the nomination of candidates.

(4) To the improper and inaccurate preparation of records or documents relating to the election, or to their not being signed in the proper manner by all who should do so, or to the proper dispositions not being made of electoral records or documents.

(5) To changing or altering in the ballot which the elector deposits in the exercise of his right, or to its being hidden from public view before it is deposited in the box.

(6) To the placing of impediment or difficulty in the way of electors, candidates, or notaries in the examination of the box before voting begins, and, when the ballots are examined, in the examination of the ballots taken from the box.

(7) To the preparation of an intentionally inaccurate list, such as to obscure the truth of the names of the voters at any election.

(8) To an inaccurate counting of votes in resolutions relative to the taking or rectification of the census, or to electoral matters, and also to the inaccurate reading of ballots.

(9) To violating the secrecy of the vote or of the election with a view to influencing its results.

(10) To the issuance of an unlawful proclamation against any person.

(11) To the making of untrue statements in the verbal declaration that is to be made on the occasion of an election, or to the prevention or impeding in any way of a proper knowledge of the truth concerning the election.

(12) To the postponement of any election without grave and sufficient cause.

Private individuals who are directly accessory to the commission of any of the offenses enumerated in the preceding article shall be punished with the penalty of imprisonment in ifs minimum degree when the penal code does not impose a more serious penalty on those who are guilty of commission or omission.

Every act, omission, or manifestation contrary to this law or to the general provisions adopted for its execution that is not included in the foregoing articles and whose object is to restrain or exert pressure upon electors, to induce them to exercise their right, or to relinquish it against their will, shall constitute the crime of coercing voters, and if there is no more serious penalty provided for it in the penal code, it shall be punished by a fine of from 125 to 2,500 pesetas.

The following persons shall also be considered as committing the crime of coercing voters, although the intention of restraining or exerting pressure upon the electors may not be obvious or apparent, and shall accordingly be subject to the penalties prescribed in the foregoing article:

(1) Civil, military, or eclesiastical authorities who advise or recommend voters to give or refuse their vote to a determinate person, and those who by the use of official means or agents, or the authorization of stamps, envelopes, seals, or notes that may have that character, recommend or advise against certain candidates.

(2) Public officers who promote or take part in the issue of Government records relating to denunciations, fines, arrears of accounts, lands, forests, granaries, or any other branch of the administration from the time when notice is given until the election is terminated.

(3) Officers, from the minister of the Crown down, who make appointments, removals, transfers, or suspensions of employees, agents, or clerks in any branch of the general, provincial, or municipal administration in the period between the giving of notice and the termination of the general balloting, when such acts are not based on legitimate reasons and affect in any way the precinct, college, district, judicial circuit, or province in which the election is held.

The cause of the removal, transfer, or suspension shall be accurately stated in the order, which shall be published in the Gazette of Madrid or in those of Havana or Puerto Rico, if it emanates from the central administration, and in the official bulletin of the respective province, if it emanates from the provincial or municipal administration. If these formalities are omitted it shall be considered as having been made without cause.

Royal decrees or orders relating to the civil governors of the provinces and to military officers shall be excepted from the above requirements. Removals, transfers, or suspensions decided upon, but of which the interested parties have not been notified before the electoral period, can not be made during said period, except in the exceptional cases and in the exceptional manner specified in this number.