Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-05-08
MONDAY. MAY 8. 1871.



The investigation into the vote for governor
in Connecticut took an unexpected turn when
the committee of the legislature proceeded with
their inquiries at New Haven. 1t will be re-
membered that the investigation was undertaken
in consequence of alleged errors in the returns,
of which the most important was said 10 have
occurredin the fourth ward of New Haven. The
whole number of names checked on the voting
list in that ward was 1914. The number of votes
for governor, according to the official count was
1900. OF these 71S were given TO Mr.. English,
57e to Mr.. Jewell, and three were scattering. Mr..
Ingerson, the democratic candidate for represen-
tative, and very popular man, had e1s votes,
tue highest humber cast for any candidate of
that party, unless Mr.. English had more. Mr..
JEWELS vote, as originally reported, exceeded
by two votes only that of the republican candi-
date for representative. The inference was OBJ
vious and was accepted by both parties
without much dispute, that an error had
been made in the count by which 100 more
votes had been attributed to Mr.. English than
had been actually cast for him. The discrep-
ancy between the whole number of votes and
the number of names checked indicated mis-
tAhS cOmSnhStO, eAnN hhS AASSASpauNl pCtWCSu
Englishs vote and that of the other democratic
candidates was thought to show pretty clearly
where the error was. The democrats hardly
Ventured to question the correctness of this in
ference; they opposed inquiry on the ground
that the legislature had no authority to make
1t; but they took it for granted that the result
would be the declaration that Jewell was
elected.
On examination of the ballot box it appeared
that there had been a mistake; but, if this in
quiry was conclusive, it was very different from
what had been supposed. The new count
showed 71S votes for English as before, and 479
for Jewell, 100 less than before. This was asur-
prise to everybody. The representative votes
were then examined and proved to have been
correctly counted. There were SIS democratic
and SIT republican votes. Thus the democratic
majority in that ward for representatives was
Al, and for governor 239. A difference so great
could not fail to be observed at the time of
voting, yet no one then remarked it. 1t is be-
leyed that the ballot box must have been tam
pered with, and that this unexpected result is
due to deliberate fraud 1t is hardly possible to
come 10 any other conclusion when all the facts
are considered. The reasons for believing that a
fraud has been perpetrated are thus stated in
the Hartford Courant:
/. According to the present count, English
and the entire democratic state ticket run 100 in
excess of MIR. g. r. lngersoll, the able and pop
ular representative-the legislature-which is in
credible.
2. In addition, it makes Jewell and the entire
republican state ticket run just 100 behind John
L. Treat, TIE republican candidate for second
representative, which is also incredible.
8. In addition, it makes Keudrck, who was
scratched on 102 democratic tickets, run within
three votes of Mr.. Stoddard, their candidate for
second representative, and within few votes of
Mr.. lngersoll.
4. Further, it makes Mr.. English's majority
in this ward 232, whereas the highest majority
in the ward heretofore has been only 49,
The way in which this fraud was committed
seems obvious enough. The box could easily
have been opened, as it was closed only by
common lock, with no seal upon the key-hoe,
and the keys, according to the town clerks state
ment, lay in pgeon-hole in his office accessible
to any one who might be in the room. To open
the box, abstract 100 of the votes for Jewell and
add the same number of democratic votes was
perfectly easy. The appearance of the ballots
when the box was opened was suspicious. They
were counted into packages of one hundred,
and after the count had beenyerifed, each pack
age was tied up tightly. Of the five packages
of republican votes, three remained in compact
parcels, the other two were loosely tied, and on
examination proved to contain but fifty ballots
each. The investigation is not yet ended.
Whether it will clear up all the mysteries of this
transaction by tangible and satisfactory evidence
is yet to be seen. We fear it is not probable.
If nothing further is discovered, Mr.. English
win be declared governor, but thereiare very few
who will believe him to have been legally and
fairly elected.