Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-02-02
0blo Statesnrart.
The Contested Cases In the Ohio
Senate.
GRosvENoR VS.. GOLDEN.

The petition of General GrosvenOr, con-
testing the seat of w. Reed Golden, is now
before the committee on Elections.
The contestant charges that the sitting
member, on the 10th of October, 1865, was
a nonresident of Ohio. In support of this,
Grosvenor claims that Golden sold some
real estate and personal property in Athens
county during the winter and spring of
| 1S66-that he made declarations of going
West. In May, 1865, his wife and children
went West, and remained there until a tter
| the election. When starting West, they
took nothing with them but necessary
wearing apparel, all the household furni-
! ture being left in Athens. Golden voted
at the election, and has voted since, and his
vote was not challenged; nor have efforts
been made to arrest him for fraudulent
voting, which would have been done had
he not been legal voter. If legal voter,
he is competent to fill the Office of Sem
atOr.
g That one of the judges of election in
Bloom township, Fairfield county, within
the seventh district, was a candidate for
County Commissioner, which township
gave Golden, the sitting member, one
hundred and eighty-six majority. If for
this cause the vote of the township is set
aside, it defeats Golden, whose majority in
the district was one hundred and sixty-one.
Mr.. Golden asks leave to take further tes-
timony, and bases it upon the ground that
the two Justices before whom Grosyenor
took his testimony, absolutely refused to
take any testimony or to examine witness
es proving the claim of Golden. The ques-
tion is now pending before the committee.
LoUDEN VS.. DowDNEY.
In the contest of General Louden for the
seat of 5. +. DJwdney, the contestOr claims
that the poll-bOOk of Perry township,
Brown county, should be set aside, upon
the plea that the Judges have failed to GER
tify the whole number of votes cast at said
election. The poll-book has the proper
heading with the names of all the electors
regularly set down and numbered, and are
signed by the Judges and attested by the
Clerks; in addition to this there is tally
sheeta g certificate showing the number
of votes cast for each candidate.
The defense is that said poll-book Is suffi-
cient, and contains all the substance of a
poll-book. The forty section of the
election law provides That no election
| shall be set aside for want of form, provided
they contain the substance"
1t is not disputed that the election was
fairly and properly conducted, and that
| Dowdney received iour hundred and twen-
| ty-three votes and General Louden eighty
| six votes. The contcstor simply asks the
disfranchisement of five hundred and nine
votes. There is no claim that there was
any fraud or illegal votes, (but simply the
office. To declare the seat vacant or give
it to General Louden would be perpetrating
an outrage unknown in the annals of con-
| tests.
There Is also set up in defense, by way OF
| counter claim, some half-dozen or more
townships where irregularities exist, and
that by the technical rule claimed by the
contestor more than One-halt tof all the voters
| in the State of Ohio would be disfranchised,
and elections would be mere farces, and
place it in the power of the clerks and
Judges of the election to disfranchise the
legal voters at will.
The seat of L. NJ. Fitch (DemOcrat), the
sitting member Of the House for Brown
county, is contested on the same grounds
and for the same cause. The House COM
mittee unanimously declared there is no
ground for the contest, and previous to
| this action of the committee, Mr.. Fitch-in
conversation, and subsequently in writ
ten ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to his oppo-
nent, Andrew Evans, while. denying that
| there was a shadow of shade of right on
the part of Evans to seat, yet he (Fitch)
was willing to waive that and to resign his
seat and take an appeal to the people. Mr..
Evans, not believing that he had or could
get majority of the votes of Brown cOun-
ty, did not accede to the proposition, and he
now finds himself in the predicament of a
man claiming a seat which his own politi-
cal friends declare he hat no right to claim
We are indebted to the Columbus cor
respondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer fol
compiling the above facts.