The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1878-11-21
THE SOUTH CAROLINA
FARCE.
THE
The Dishonesty Of Democrats,
and how they SWindle
I'm Elections.

Elk Congressman Mackey writes to
the New York Times about the late
election as follows:
"The most outrageous cases eff bal
lot box stuffing occurred at the two
polls in Ward Three of Charleston.
At the Palmetto Engine-house, Poll
No. /. of the Democratic managers,
foreman of the Neus and Courier job
printing office, stuffed $500 false
| tickets in the ballot box after the poll
was closed. The manager, finding
that there were 1869 ballots in the
box, declined TO throw out any, but
counted them all and returned the
vote Of that poll as 461 for Mackey
and 3,1O8 for O'Connor. At the
other poll in this wand, the same act
was performed, and its managers re
turned 121 for Mackey, and 1866
for O'Conner, so that one ward ont
of the eight in the city was made to
give a majority of 1892 votes for
O'Connor. The utter impossibility
of voting 1869 persons at one poll in
the u hours needs hardly be argued.
AS the managers swore each voter
separately, and in many cases consul
med three to four minutes in ques-
tioning some voters, it is safe to say
that the average time consumed IN
voting each man was one minute,
which would allow 700 votes to be
polled; provided there was a continu.
Gus stream of voters during the y
hours the polls were opened. Yet at
this poll the managers..made a return
under oath that 3,549 persons voted
in the space of IL hours. By this
method Charleston City was made to
give O'Conner a majority of 6,527, or
a majority larger than the entire
Democratic vote of the city. Through
out this county and the District the
boxes were stuffed in the same way
not only liz Charleston, but in Clar-
endon. Not satisfied with stufing
the ballot boxes, the Democrats, find
ing it impossible to stuff the ballot
box at the Washington Engine house.
in Ward Six, because Of the vigilance
of the United States Supervisor, put
out the light and stole the box and
destroyed it, because l had a MAORI
ty of about 500 there. On Edisto
Island, where 1000 Republican
voters reside, and where the Demo
Gratis have only 40 or 80 votes, the
Democratic Commissioners failed to
open the polls, thus actually d;Sfran-
chising those voters"
A Columbia special to the Times
details the following additional de-
tails of the great Swindle:
"The frauds perpetrated in this
State stagger belief. In all the
counties where there was opposition,
the Democrats voted a diminutive
tissue ballot, inclosed generally in a
larger one. They were voted in
patches. 1 have heard two men con-
fess to voting, respectfully, l8 and ~
of them. In some boxes there were
four times as many votes as there
wore votes in the precint. In others
the excess of votes over voters was
withdrawn by a blindfolded man,
who almost invariably took out Re-
publican tickets. Ia this county the
Republicans voted more solid than in
1876, when the majority was owe
1900 Republican. This time it is
$500 Democratic, (more than the
number of Democratic voters. STUFF
fling was resorted to as a pastime, and
was carried beyond all bounds Of ne
cessity. Everybody is laughing about
it, and no attempt to deny or conceal
the fraud is made, except in the
newspapers. The tissue-paper tick
cts are general throughout Republi-
can counties, showing that the scheme
emanated from headquarters.
Supervisors ard Deputy Marshals
were kept away from the count. This
sort of fraud beats murder, violence,
or intimidation"
No wonder the Democratic MAORI
ty was in the neighborhood of one
hundred thousand.