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OKLAHOMA

LAW JOURNAL

EDITED AND PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY

D. H. FERNANDES, GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA.

VOL. 5.

July, 1906.

No. 1.

THE ENABLING ACT.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.

Sec. 1. That the inhabitants of all that part of the area of the United States now constituting the Territory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, as at present described, may adopt a constitution and become the State of Oklahoma, as hereinafter provided: Provided, that nothing contained in the said constitution shall be con strued to limit or impair the rights of person or property pertaining to the Indians of said Territories (so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished) or to limit or affect the authority of the government of the United States to make any law or regulation respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights by treaties, agreement, law, or otherwise, which it would have been competent to make if this act had never been passed.

Sec. 2. That all male persons over the age of twenty-one years, who are citizens of the United States or who are members of any Indian nation or tribe in said Indian Territory or Oklahoma, and who have resided within the limits of said proposed state for at least

six months next preceding the election, are hereby authorized to vote for and choose delegates to form a constitutional convention for said proposed state; and all persons qualified to vote for said delegates shall be eligible to serve as delegates; and the delegates one hundred and twelve in number, fifty-five of whom shall be elected by the people of the Territory of Oklahoma, and fifty-five by the people of Indian Territory, and two shall be elected by the electors residing in the Osage Indian reservation in the Territory of Oklahoma; and the governor, the chief justice, and the secretary of the Territory of Okla homa shall apportion the Territory of Oklahoma into fifty-six districts, as nearly equal in population as may be, except that such apportionment shall include as one district the Osage Indian reservation, and the governor and the chief justice, and the secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma shall appoint an election commissioner who shall establish voting precincts in said Osage Indian reservation, and shall appoint the judges for election in said Osage Indian reservation; and two delegates shall be elected from the said Osage district; and the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, and two judges of the United States courts for the Indian Territory to be designated by the President, shall constitute a board, which shall apportion the said Indian Territory into fiftyfive districts, as nearly equal in population as may be, and one delegate shall be elected from each of said districts; and the governor of Oklahoma Territory, together with the judge senior in the service of the United States courts in the Indian Territory, shall, by proclamation in which such apportionment shall be fully specified and announced, order an election of the delegates aforesaid in said proposed state at a time designated by them within six months after the approval of this act, which proclamation shall be issued at least sixty days prior to the time of holding such election of delegates. The

election of delegates in the Territory of Oklahoma and in said Indian Territory shall be conducted, the returns made, the result ascertained, and the certificates of all persons elected to such convention issued in the same manner as is proscribed by the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma regulating elections for delegate to Congress. That the election laws of the Territory of Oklahoma now in force, as far as applicable and not in conflict with this act, including the penal laws of said Territory of Oklahoma relating to elections and illegal voting, are hereby extended to and put in force in said Indian Territory until the legislature of said proposed state shall otherwise provide, and until all persons offending against said laws in the election aforesaid shall have been dealt with in the manner therein provided. And the United States courts of said Indian Territory shall have the same power to enforce the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, hereby extended to and put in force in said Territory as have the courts of the Territory of Oklahoma; Provided, however, That said board to apportion districts in Indian Territory shall for the purpose of said election, appoint an election commissioner for each district who shall distribute all ballots and election supplies to the several precincts in his district, receive the election returns from the judges in precincts, and deliver the same to the canvassing board herein named, establish and define the necessary election precincts, and appoint three judges of election for each precinct, not more than two of whom shall be of the same political party, which judges may appoint the necessary clerk or clerks; that said judges of election, so appointed, shall supervise the election in their respective precincts, and canvass and make due return of the vote cast, to the election commissioner for said district who shall deliver said returns, poll.books. and ballots to said board, which shall constitute the ultimate and final canvassing board of said election, and

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