, 1876-11-19
THE CHICAGO ELECTION.

THE CHICAGO ELECTION.
From present appearances the action o.
the Cook County Returning Board will be o.
more Importance to the people Of Chicago
than the action Of the Louisiana Returning
Board. This Board consists Of County Clerl
LEB and Justices HANEs and HAMMnI.
Unlike the Returning Board of Louisiana, il
is not vested with any Judicial powers; its
duty is simply that of counting the returns,
and they are 80 defined by the statute, and
have been SO construed by the Supreme
| Court Yet for several days there has been
strong indication that this Board would
assume to throw out certain precincts
twenty-one in number and Republican in
majority-on account Of unimportant in
formalihes, and by that means declare
elected some Of the Democratic candidates
who were defeated by large majorities, in
cluding probably HouE, the Democratic
Congressional candidate in the First District,
and the Democratic candidates for States
Attorney, Recorder, and Clerk of the Cir
cult Court.
To understand the full infamy of any such
design, it must be remembered ~ that the
Supreme Court of this State has decided the
functions Of this Returning Board to be
merely ministerial;. (2) that the Supreme
Court has also decided that the result of an
election cannot be vitiated by the failure to
appoint clerks, the absence of tally-lsts, or
any other informality due to the ignorance
of the judges; (3) that these decisions have
been fully explained to the Board by lawyers
entitled to respect, like SIDNEY Smith, JAMES
P. Roor, and H. B. HuRD az TINT there
las been no charge Of fraud in any voting
precinct in the city or county, and that
none is now set up; (5) that two out of
the three judges in every voting precinct
were Democrats (G that these judges
were all appointed by the Democratic
County Board, whose servant L1Ep is; ~
that the informalities are all in Republican
precincts, which would indicate that the
Democratic judges in those precincts were
especially chosen for their ignorance or will
ingness to be informal; and (8) that the
voice Of the people would be nullifed by the
appointment by o Democratic Board of Dem
ocratic election judges, and the refusal Of
Democratic Board to count Republican dis
trlcts on account Of the ignorance, or care
lessness, or willful design of the Democratic
election judges.
From what we can learn, the chief mover
in this proposed fraud is County Clerk LrEn.
AS far as he is concerned, he is precluded
from voting to throw out these precincts by
his own declaration<fwo years ago, when he
published written opinion, if we are not
mistaken, entirely disclaiming any such
powers as are now set up for his Board. This
was when the three Congressional Districts
Of Cook County went Democratic. If he
had no discretionary powers two years ago,
Of course he has none now. But, even if
L1En would stultify himself and render him
self still more obnoxious to this community
by assuming powers which the law does not
give him, We can scarcely think that his u.s.
socintes in the Board-HANEs and HAMMu1
will lend themselves to. SO scanda1ous
plot. Fhey will not do so if they hope to
maintain any standing in the community.
The plot is one to place in Office certain DEM
ocrats who were defeated by $500 votes in
an election where the Democratic Presiden-
tial candidate carried the county by as many.
That is to say, the Democrats nominated so
obnoxious lot of fellows for the county Of
fees with the exception Of Sheriff. that
they could not squeeze in even when the
county was Democratic, and now it is pro-
posed to seat them by most unblushing
fraud in the count. Of course the Repub-
icans elected will finally secure their offices
through the Intervention Of the Courts but
the Returning Board may, by the proposed
Illegal assumption Of powers they do not
possess under the law, keep them out for
time and occasion the county serious trouble.
LmB's Canvassing Board is to give its decision
tomorrow, and we seriously advise its men,
bers, one and all, not to deliberately over
ride the law for partisan purposes. The peo-
pie Of this county will never forget nor for
give them if they do.