Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-12-03
StufIlng the BallOt-Box - How the
Democracy Carried New York.


From tho Msriden Comm Hepublican.
THE son Of one of our wealthiest and
most respected citizens, who officiated as
one of ue poll clerks in Brooklyn, N. Y,
at the late election, writes home TO his
father in this city as follows giving0a
complete erp0ss, II further evidence than
we have had were needed, Of the villain.
Gus manner in which the Democrats won
the victory in that State:
NEW YoRK, Nov. 4, 1862.
DEAR FATHER Thinking perhaps
you must be interested In knowing some.
thing how voting is conducted in New
York, viii give, youa description of my
experience as poH clerk on Tuesday, Nov.
Q. | aeted, in the ----th District of the
--th Ward, Brooklyn, the toughest
ward in the city, but the best district In
the ward. The polls opened at $50 n. M,
at which time there was crowd of Irish
men on hand, all ready to commence early.
| may as well say here lin order that you
may understand better why some things
were allowed which took place during the
day. that there were four canvassers, of
whom two should have been Republicans;
two inspectors, one Of whom should have
been Republican and two poll clerks,
of whom one was Republican, and that
was myself, and Twas the only Republican
in the crowd. -
My duties were TO write down Che name
of each man as he voted his. residence,
and what tickets he voted there. being
nine tickets in all, The first thing they
did was TO send for a bottle of whisky, and
shortly after they sent for another They
had o-bottles of whisky and n pitcher
of lager there all day, and as fast as one
got empty they would send out and have
lnI nm In, In
very well, but it was not long before they
commenced their games. Almost. every
man that.voted would have from three to
five votes. A short dialogue, something
after this manner, generally ensued before
they commenced voting
" Sec here, you've only got three tick
cts; don't you want to vote the whole
nineP" --
"No ! don't care for the rest"
Yes you do, you'd better vote the
whole tlifng"
"Well, l don't care; but haven't got
the tickets here; somebody give me some
tickets"
"Oh, never mind here are some tick
cts"
A lot of Democratic tickets had been
placed just behind the ballot boxes, and
the managers of the voting would take up
one for each box, stuff them in, and call
off to me the voters names, which was
bound to put down. And so it went on
all day-one continuous game of stufllng.
The place was jammed all day with
drunken set of Irish Democrats. didn't
see n epublican,until about o'clock p. IN.
/ had my breakfast at $50 q. M, and my
dinner at 3 p. M, and didn't get anything
more to eat,until $50 a. m. the next day.
The polls closed at $3.50 p. m, and then
commenced the fun. After the State ticket
had been counted they came pretty near
having fight, l was busy making out
papers and getting ready to send in my
| returns to headquarters, so did not keep
tally with the other poll clerk. He handed
me his paper to make out my returns
from, and, on looking over it, found that
according to his figures there had been
over thousand votes recorded, when in
reality there were only 27S rightfully
polled. spoke about it, and you should
have seen him fly. He wanted to know
what business it was of mine, and called
me everything but n good fellow.
About this time some one in the crowd
took the matter up, and they had it hot
and heavy, but the Republican stood no
show, and did very wise thing under the
circumstances and that was to clear GU !;
had he not done so they would have
broken his head for him. refused to
make any return from his paper, and so
the matter stood until we got through
with the other eight tickets, when they
went to work and cooked ups paper to
suit themselves, and | didn't dare do any
thing else but send in the return as they
gave it to me, for had already had a row
on almost every ticket.
After the State ticket we took the others
IN order. l made up my mind that
would keep tally of the votes as they
were called off myself, which made lively
work for me, as l had to make complete
returns of every ticket, and send a police
man up to headquarters with it as soon
as completed, We didn't agree in sim
gle thing the other poll clerk would have
the biggest maiorities for the Democrats.
The Assembly ticket is fair sample of
the way things went. Adding the Demo
crat and Republican tickets together he
had $40 votes, and you remember there
We're only 21S votes polled.
OF course | refused his figures, and sent
in return OF my own, which / believe to
be as near correct as it was possible to get
them. Upon my refusing his figures he
would get mad and swear like trooper
The air was so impregnated with tobacco
smoke that il is u wonder we were not
dead drunk from merely breathingthe AIR.
Over every ticket we had row, which
would end in my sending in my own
figures. OF course the crowd backed the
other fellow up, and l expected every
minute they would either break my head
or pitch'm out of the building.
There were three policemen there all
the time beside the one had to take in
my returns. One policeman sat down on
one side of me, another on the other side,
and the other kept the crowd away from
me, They told me TO do as | was doing
and stick TO my rights and they would see
me through. We got through about -
o'clock at night with the counting, at
which time the two inspectors were laid
out drunk ON the floor. The canVassers
were so drunk they could not make out
their books of which there were three.
had to make out all three, which took me
until2;30 a, m, writing as hard as could
preserved copy of all my returns and
l made the books agree with them.
Amer got through with these books,
the canvasscrs managed TO sign their
names to them, which completed the
days work, We were compelled to carry
the inspectors out, as they were so drunk
they could not walk. helped one of the
canvassers home myself l never passed
through such scene before in my life.
had forgotten to refer TO one important
fact-that on the ticket for assessment and
taxation there were 15t against and for
il, thought you would like to have an
Impartial statement of now voting is con.
Quoted in this city, and have hurriedly
tried to acquaint you with the facts. l
remain your atlectionate son,
ALFRED
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HUSk inur