The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-03-10
THE THIRD CONGRESSIONAL nxs-
TMIET.
How the Vote of Iberyilie Was Counted
for Cons ressHnan.

| 1bE AuA8FtssWMHs
Mr.. }. H. Acklen, of st. Mary, the
Democratic candidate for Congress In
| the Third Congressional District, has
| been busy for several weeks past In col.
| Letting evidence to substantiate the
contest he intends to make against g.
B. Darrall, who was returned elected
from that District by the Returning
| Board.
Mr.. Acklen has been singularly for
tunate In the evidence he has managed
to collect, and has succeeded In unearth.
ing. In the parish Of Iberville, the system
OF fraud by which the Republicans voted
and counted the votes. Outside Of this
parish, the vote for Congress was very
close, standing: Darrall, 1874; Acklen,
1867. It was generally believed at the
time that Mr.. Aoklen had carried Iber-
Vile, as one OF the two Republican can
didates for the Senate in that district
supported him against Darrall, and he
ticket.
In the hot and bitter fight waged be
tween these two Radical candidates for
the Senate, Wakefield and Wharton, one
Of them scratched the Republican can
didates for President and electors from
his ticket, while the other did the
same trick by the Republican
candidate for Congress. The result
was, that the publicans OF Iberville
voted some for Acklen for Congress,
some for Darrall. and q great many
blank. When the counting, however,
came on, these tickets were counted
in bulk, with the exception OF one sin
gle place, (poll No. 81; that is, O hundred
Republican tickets were taken out tn o
box and counted as hundred votes
for each person on the Republican
ticket, from President to justice of the
peace, whereas, in many instances, only
some half dozen Of these votes were for
the Republican candidate for Congress,
the others being either blank or for the
Democratic candidate.
Suspecting something of this kind,
Mr.. Acklen appeared before the Parish
Judge Of Iberville, O Republican, and
obtained a subpoena dAces tecuns order
ing the clerk Of the District Court, also
o Republican, to produce the ballot
boxes, ballots, ETC., in court, and sub
NIT them to the examination Of COM
mission OF experts, two OF whom were
to be Republicans and two Democrats.
The order was made, the boxes and
ballots were produced, and the latter
counted, Mr.. Darrall being represented
in his proceeding by his attorney. It
was then shown that the return Of votes,
as made by the Commissioners of Elec-
ton and the Returning Board, was ut
terly false.
The Returning Board declared the re-
suit as 2o70 votes for Darrall and 1918
for Acklen. Whereas, the true vote was ::
Acklen 1893, Darrall 1853, blank 40.
Showing a majority for Acklen in the
parish Of 342 and in the district Of a47,
instead Of majority for Darrail.
There were In addition to this, frauds
committed by the Radicals in Lafourehe
and Iberia, but these, Mr.. Acklen has
not cared to investigate, since he Is able
to let these frauds count against him
and yet show himself elected; in fact,
he fully proves his case in Iberville
alone, and needs no outside testimony.
The testimony he has taken in the case
is full and thorough, and comes, for the
most part, from Republican witnesses;
it will prove amply sufficient, we have
no doubt, to convince Congress that Mr.:
Acklen and not Mr. Darrall was elected
to represent the Third Congressional
District Of Louisiana.