Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-11-15
SOUTH CAROLINA.
How the Democrats Carried the Palmet-
to State--The Tissue Paper Plan.
The following letter from Judge NJ;

gress IN the Charleston, 5. e., District.
shows the means employed by the De
mocracy to gain the elections in that
State. The fraudulent tickets to which
he refers were printed on tissue paper
and were much smaller than the regular
Democratic tickets. in which they were
found folded, sometimes to the number
Of twenty, deposited by one individual
They were in use all over the State in
Republican districts, showing that the
fraud was concocted at headquarters.
Judge Mackey says:
CHARLESTON, S. C., Nov. 7, 1878.
My DEAR SIR:-As you anticipated,
the Democrats have counted me out.
That | received majority of at least
5000 there is no doubt, yet O'Connor is
given by the election officers a majority
of 10000, and perhaps it will be more.
How it has been done | shall tell you.
and | hope you will publish the facts in
every paper you can. In the first place,
in the appointment of Managers of
Election, the Democratic Commission
ers of Elections in several counties in
this district absolutely refused to APP
point single Republican Manager
throughout the districts, so that we
were compelled to vote without single
election officer to represent us in the
entire district. 1t is true, we had a
United States Supervisor appointed at
each poll, and, though the Democratic
Managers at most of the polls admitted
them into the polling places, yet they
threw every obstacle they could in their
way, and in no instance would they al
low them to exercise any authority, save
to stand by and witness the voting. In
some instances the authority of the Su-
pervisors was entirely ignored
In one case the Managers ordered the
Supervisor out Of the polling place, and
upon his refusing to go, they ordered
the State Constables to eject him, which
they did This was at Mt. Pleas
ant poll, in this county. At Palmetto
House, in Ward 3 of this city,
the Supervisor was badly beaten by
the Democratic voters, and driven away
from the polls. The authority of the
United States Marshals was treated
with utter contempt, and, to save them
selves from arrest by the city and State
authorities, they were compelled to re-
frain from exercising any authority. In
this city the Democratic Managers Of
Election arbitrarily refused at least
1000 colored voters the right to vote.
Unless the colOred man was known to
one Of the Managers of Election, he was
refused, unless he could bring witnesses
to prove where he resided. Many were
turned off under the pretext that they
were not Il years OF age, or, rather, that
the managers were doubtful of it. At
the last session of the Legislature two
voting precincts in st. Andrews Parish
were abolished, and the 900 colored
voters of that section left without a
polling place The parish is only sepa-
rated from the city by the Aspley River,
and used to be connected with Charles
ton by bridge, which you will probably
recollect was burnt at the evacuation of
the city by the rebels. The people
crossed over to the City of Charleston
for the purpose of voting, but the Dem
ocratic Managers would not receive
their votes, though the City Of Charles
ton was the only place where they could
vote. The Legislature also abolished all
voting places on the State road between
Charleston and Summerville; and yet,
when the people came to Charleston to
vote, the Democratic Managers denied
them the privilege, telling them to go
and vote where they lived, although they
knew full well that there was no voting
place where they resided. Notwith
standing all these outrages, the Repub
licans carried this county by at least
1000, but, to their utter surprise, the
ballot boxes were opened at the various
polls, the boxes were found to contain
in most cases, several hundred more
ballots than there were names on the
poll-list. Out of thirty-two polls in
this county, at twenty of them the bal
lots were largely in excess of the names
on the poll-list Every ballot-box was
stuffed with tickets of the kind | en-
close. These tickets were not circulated
during the election, but had been print
ed by the Democratic Executive Com
mittee, and distributed amongst the
managers only. The regular Democrat
ic tickets, as well as the Republican
tickets, were five times as large in most
instances, especially where very few
Democratic votes were cast. The man.
ayers, after counting the ballots and as
certaining the excess, returned them to
the ballot box, but were careful to leave
them unfolded, and proceeded to draw
out the number of ballots in excess.
They were careful, however, to throw
out none Of these small tickets, but in
every instance the large Republican bal
lots were drawn out and destroyed At
Mt. Pleasant poll 1872 Republican bal
lots were thus drawn out and destroyed
and this poll, where the Republicans
had voted five to one against the Demo-
Gratis, was made to give a Democratic
majority OF 326.
The most outrageous case OF ballot
box stuffing occurred at the polls in
Ward 3 of this city. At the poll known
as the Palmetto Engine House, one of
the Managers, W. l.. Doggett, the fore
man of the Ne,rs and Courier job print-
ing office, stuffed $500 of these little
tickets in the box after the poll were
closed. The Managers, finding that
there were 1919 ballots in the box, de-
clined to throw out any, but counted
them all. and returned the votes of that
poll as 461 for Mackcy and 3,1OS for
O'Connor At the other polls in this
ward the same act was performed, and
the Managers returned 12l for Mackey
and 1866 for O'Connor; so that one ward
out Of the eight in the city was made to
give majority of 1892 votes for O'Con-
nor. The utter impossibillity of voting
1860 persons at one poll in the space of
twelve hours needs hardly to be argued.
As the Managers sworn each vote sep
arately, and, in many cases, consumed
three or four minutes in questioning
voters, it is safe to say that the average
time consumed in voting each man was
one minute, which would allow 72O votes
to be polled, provided there was con
tinnous stream of votes during the twelve
hours the polls were open. Yet, at
this poll the Managers make a return
oath that 1869 persons voted in the
space of twelve hours. BY this method
Charleston City is made to give O'Con-
nor a majority of 6527, or a majority
larger than the entire Democratic vote
of the city Throughout this county
and entire district boxes were stuffed in
the same way, not only in Charleston
but in Clarendon, Not satisfied with
stuffing the ballot boxes, the Democrats,
finding if imnOSSible TO Stuff the ballot