International: Epic Registration

The nation was given further evidence last week of the intensity of the California gubernatorial campaign between Republican Acting Governor Frank Merriam and EPICandidate Upton Sinclair when California’s Secretary of State announced the final registration figure: 3,140,114. Never before had so many Californians made themselves eligible to vote. In Los Angeles County alone, 1,305,527 persons had gone through the Nov. 6 preliminaries.

Since Democratic Nominee Sinclair’s main strength lies in and around Los Angeles, and since an unprecedented number of drifters have been attracted to Southern California by his “End Poverty In California.” the Los Angeles County Republican Assembly sniffed fraud, began an investigation of registrations. First result was a suit filed by the State’s Attorney General to remove 24,136 names from the rolls. According to the Republicans, hopeful vagrants had been giving vacant lots and stores for residences, had assumed the names of dead men in order to ballot for their EPICandidate.