The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1876-02-23
A Serious Probe m-COunting the
Electoral Vote.

The regulation of the method of count
ing the electoral votes and determining
questions that may arise in performing
that function, is getting to be serious
problem. The law provides that the
President of the United States Senate, in
presence of both Houses of Congress,
shall open the certificates of election from
the various States and count them. In
1865, the Republican majority i'll Con-
gress adopted the following rule for OBJ
servance in counting the votes:
/ II. upon reading any such certificate by
| the tellers, any question shall arise in regard
! to counting the votes therein certified, the
same being stated by The presiding officer,
| the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and
/ said question shall be submitted TO that
| body for its decision; and the Speaker of
| tie House of Representatives shall in like
! manaer submit said question to the House
| of Representatives for its decision, and no
question shall be decided affirmatively and
/ no vote objected to shall be counted except
| by the concurrent vote of the two Houses.
which being obtained the two Houses shall
| Immediately reassem BILE, and the presiding
! officer shall then announce the decision of
| the question, and upon any such question
there shall be no debate in either House.
This rule, it will be seen, requires the
concurrent decision of both Houses in
counting the vote Of any State. An OBJ
lection to the count of vote by either
House devolves upon each to consider the
objections, and unless both the Senate
and the House concur, the vote of any
State may be rejected. If both Houses
happen to be of the same politics, no
trouble can well arise; but if they differ,
the danger of serious complications be-
comes imminent, and this will be the case
when the votes of the pending Presidential
elections are counted. The Senate
is Republican. The House is Demo-
cratic. If the Senate follows the teach
ings of Morton, it is not unlikely
that it will object to the counting of the
vote of any of the hitherto doubtful recon
structed States for example, Alabama,
Mississippi or Louisiana. The House, of
course, will not submit to this injustice,
and will object to the votes Of Republi-
can State as an offset. Thus, an election
by the Electoral College would be de-
feated entirely, by the failure of the two
Houses to agree. In this event, the
Constitution provides that the House of
Representatives shall make a choice, and
that the representation from each State
shall have one vote. AS a majority of
the States have majority of Democrat
ic Representatives, the choice in the
pending election would fall upon the
candidate of the Democratic party.
Hence it will be seen why Morton and
his partisans are so eager to repeal the
rule which they adopted in 1864. The
engineer is in danger of being "hoist by
his own petard." Circumstances have
altered the case, and the Radical OK is
likely to be gored by the Democratic
bull.
In the last Congress, Mr.. Morton of
fered bill providing Gin lieu of
the present rule) that the objection
of both Houses should be necessary to
the rejection of the vote of any State,
but it contained the clause by which
factious majority in either House could
prevent the casting of the votes Of any
obnoxious State, in the event of double
return from the same State, viz: '"That
return shall be counted which the two
Houses, acting separately, shall decide
| to be the true and valid one" If the
Houses cannot agree which is the "true
and valid" return, both are to be reject
ed, and the votes of the State sending
them lost 1t will be seen at once how
the rule would operate in the States re-
Gently under carpet-bag control. AS
soon as the adventures discovered the
certainty of the electoral vote being cast
against them in a fair, election, they
would get up one of their own and seEd
on separate return so as to prevent
the vote of the State from being counted
at all.
In short, the rule which has been in
force since 1864 was the work Of the Re-
publican leaders, and every motive OF
protection demands that the Demo
cratic House of Representatives shall
hold them to their own bargain. If it is
an evil, they are responsible for it; and il
is evident that the Morton substitute
will work greater mischief than the one
If is intended to remedy