Here scribe 2 of 𝓟 wrote “that the voice of the people should cause iniquity”. The 1830 compositor corrected cause to choose in 𝓟 (his correction is in pencil and looks like it was written as he was punctuating the manuscript prior to setting the type). Although the written choose looks somewhat like Oliver Cowdery’s hand, the corrector here was the 1830 compositor, especially since the spelling choose is not how Oliver would have spelled the word at that time. As explained under the Words of Mormon 1:4–6, Oliver consistently misspelled choose as chose except for the last time he wrote the word in 𝓟 (namely, in Ether 6:24), which would have been written near the end of the typesetting (that is, several months later).
The 1830 compositor’s emendation here in Alma 10:19 is undoubtedly correct. The expression “to cause iniquity” occurs nowhere else in the text, but there is one very significant use of “to choose iniquity” that is directly relevant here in Alma 10:19—namely, king Mosiah’s words to the people when he established the reign of the judges:
Moreover, choose in Alma 10:19 works better given that the following clause begins with that is, which means that the basic idea of the previous clause will be restated. The subsequent statement about the people falling into transgression is semantically closer to a general statement about the people choosing iniquity rather than a specific reference to causing iniquity.
Finally, scribe 2’s error is readily explained. Earlier in Alma 10:19, there is a present participial clause that uses the verb cause along with the plural form of the noun voice: “causing that this people should be governed by their own voices”. The preceding occurrence of causing thus prompted scribe 2 to misread choose as cause. As explained under the Words of Mormon 1:4–6, choose was probably misspelled as chose in 𝓞, which would have more readily led to the misreading of chose as cause. Oliver Cowdery was very probably the scribe in Alma 10:19; we have fragments from 𝓞 at the end of this chapter, and they are in Oliver’s hand. And at that time he would have spelled choose as chose.
Summary: Accept in Alma 10:19 the 1830 compositor’s emendation of cause to choose; the reference is to king Mosiah’s language earlier in Mosiah 29:27: “if the time cometh that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity”.