The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-04-14
The contest in the Third Ward.

aliaa mater
The Contest in the Third ward.
We copy the following paragraph
on this subject from the Courier OF
yesterday:
"A QUESTION FOR THE Council
The Council last nisht fully and Of
fieially recognized Mr.. Van Ripper as
the legally elected member OF the I
Board from the Third Ward. His /
name was called on the roll the Same |
as the names of the other members; |
his vote was counted on every ques
ton Just as was the names of the 9th
ers; his certificate was received by the /
Clerk, just as was the certificate of all
the other Councilman; his nomina-
tions were recorded aud voted upon,
and. In short. he was recognized by
the Councilmen 10 all his acts as a
member of the Board. The public
must bear ia mind that a contest
for a seat on the Board of Common
Council il very different from the
mode of procedure IN the State or
National Legislature. In fact, the
public must bear in mind that there
Is neither law or judicial Interpreter
ton of law which admits Of the
right for one person to contest the
election OF another for Councilman.
lit has never been successfully done,
because the certificates of election
come directly from the inspector OF
election instead of an officer Of the
Court. as IN other elections. Again,
the. certificates are all gwen at inc
same time, and if contest Is made at
Al. = oh ho
sidered vacant until a decision could
he had. Surprising. then, that Messrs.
Carson, Brommelhaus, Eedderich and
Heilman-all defeated by small ma
iorities-should contest the election
of,their opponents, by what showsOf
right or Justice could Messrs. Hop
kins. Orr, Steinbaeh and HOdson vote
upon the question Their seats once
contested-notiee of the intention of
their opponents to enter protest
would be sufficient to defer them from
the right to occupy their seats until
decision had been arrived at, and
4Citb .fUe contested seats thu t10ald not
be a quorum Of The Council left to de-
eide Courier.
The mooted question as to who
shall be COUNCILMAN of the Third
Ward will, we presume, be decided
this afternoon. We only copy the
above paragraph to show the con-
temptibleness of the teohnicalities
upon which Mr.. VAN RIPPER and his
friends base his right to a seat as
Councilman. twill be observed that
neither the Courier nor Mr.. VAN
RIPPER has denied the correctness OF
the facts set forth by us and repeated
in Mr.. SEMoNIN's notice of protest.
These facts show that the Inspectors
and Judges Of the Election counted
for Mr.. VAN RIPPER one ticket upon
which every name was crossed off by
a pencil mark, except the name OF
THOMAS BULLEN, for Marshal. That
they refused to count two tickets upon
which, with others, was the name OF
PETER SEMoNIN, for Councilman Of
the Third Ward. because these tickets
were clipped from the columns of 1
newspaper; and we have shown thai
under the law and the decision of Tx
.SltDreme Court, the judges had nc
right to refuse to count these tickets
These facts, we repeat have not been
denied.
The paragraph above, from the
Courier, is fair sample of the logic
upon which VAN RIpER's friends hope
to sustain what they manifestly re-
gard as a very bad case. 1t asserts
that because the City Clerk received
Mr.. VAN RIPER's certificate and thai
gentleman took his seat, therefore he
was recognized as Councilman, and
can not be ousted. 1t argues, further
that one person cannot contest the
election of another for Councilman
because the certificates come directly
from the Inspector of Election, in.
stead Of an officer of the Court, as il
toher elections Did anybody eve
ever before hear such nonsense. /
the Curriers' argument is good, i
proves that the voters of Ward can
not choose their own Councilman
because the Inspector Of Election MAJ
throw out legal votes and issue a Ger
tifcate to whomsoever he pleases, ant
that certificate will entitle the one re
ceiying it to his seat as Councilman
from which he cannot be removed
Certainly, if this reasoning prevails
it will greatly simplify elections il
the future The main controvers
hereafter will be to secure the RICH
Kind of men as Inspectors of Elec
tions-men with nerve enough t
make out certificates regardless of til
choice Of the voters.
Besides the Inherent nonsense O
such an argument, it absolutely an
uuqualifedly nullifes a plain provis
ion of the city charter. It not onl
outrages common sense, but trample
upon the plain provisions of the Law
The charter expressly says the Mayo
and CounciImen shall, be judges {
the election returns and of the Qualit
cations of their O1oB members" Ho'
can this be done if they cannot go be
hind the certificate of election give
by an Inspector? The language {
the charter is almost identical wit
the language of the State Constitu
ton in defining the powers Of th
Legislature. The Constitution say
each House of the Legislature "sha
judge the election, qualifications an
returns of it's members" is we
known that the certificate of elect;o