Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1877-01-17

made by two OF the three persons
designated by law, to the Secretary
of State. This return gave the
State TO Tilden by l03 majority.
The County Judge, who had re-
fused to meet the other two, at the
same time called in person who
had been appointed justice of the
peace after the election had been
held, and these two canvassed, not
the official returns, hut duplicates
that covered only two of the four
precincts, and sent their returns to
the Secretary of State, which gave
the State to Hayes by ~. The
Returning Board decided, as was
proper, that the clerks return was
the correct one, and this was there
fore allowed and counted.
Next comes Clay county. Here
the county canvassers, also Repub-
licans, left out one precinct, on the
ground that it did not appear that
the inspectors took the oath pre-
scribed by law. But they made
statement with their returns, show
ing that the precinct gave "a Dem
ocratic majority, and the Return
ing Board held that the objection
was not good, and, therefore, count
ed the precinct.
But having gone so far, the
board began to throw ont votes.
In Monroe county they threw out
a Democratic precinct on the
ground that the canvass there was
not completed on the night of the
election, as the law demands. The
inspectors completed the count at
one o'clock, hut one of their num-
her, Republican, fell i'll, and moved
to defer the declaration of the re-
turn until next morning. There
was no pretense OF fraud.
In Hamilton county the Board
flung out Jasper precinct, on the
ground that during the election
two of the inspectors, both Repub-
Leans, deserted the polls. One of
these deserving inspectors-a Re-
publican, be it remembered-him-
self made the affidavit of the ir-
regularity on which the board flung
out the vote. There was no at
tempt to impeach the rectitude of
the vote.
In Jackson county, the board
threw ont votes on the ground that
the ballot boxes were placed so
high that the colored voters could
not see into them. But all the
election officers were Republicans
and the boxes were all alike.
In Manatee county, the whole
vote was flung ont on the ground
that there was no County Clerk to
attend to the registration and other
duties. The circumstances were
these: The clerk of the county
was a Republican, appointed by
Governor Storms; he resigned
shortly before the election. The
inhabitants appealed to him to re-
sumo his duties, bnt he refused.
They asked the Governor to ap-
point another, hut the new ap-
pointee refused to qualify. Hence
no new registration of voters could
he made, and the law requires that
every voter shall previously and in
the same year have been registered.
After consultation it was determin-
ed to open the polls and to accept
the votes of all who had registered
before the previous election, each
voter appending an affidavit that
he had so registered. The CON-
missioners, inspectors and county
Judge did their duty. The county
is strongly Democratic and Demo-
Gratis claim that they lost between
200 and 800 votes by the discour-
agement of their voters and the
impossibility to register new voters.
However that may be, the Return
ing Board flung out the whole
county.
By these operations the State
was counted not only for Hayes but
also for Stearns, the Republican
Governor, candidate for reelection.
But Drew, the Democratic candi-
date for Governor, appealed to the
Supreme Court and the Court on
the evidence before it, and which