Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-01-17


he win find It utterly impossible to substanti-
ate. Referring to an act passed by the Re
publican Legislature IN 1875 designating the
voting precincts throughout the State, and
by which hfty-fve* we're named for the County
Of Charleston, he says: This act largely
increased the precincts as previously existing,
and the change by this law augmented the
number largely" This is neither true in re-
latlon to the State nor in regard to Charleston
County. Previous to the passage Of that act
the polling places in each county were desig-
mated at each successive election by the Com
missioners Of Election, in whom the authority
was vested, and although they generally des-
ignated from year TO year the same polling
places, yet the Legislature deemed 1t more
prudent to deprive them of that power by es-
tablishing BY law the voting places in each
county, and this act OF the Legislature desig-
mated, with few unimportant changes, the
same polling places as had existed for years
previous. In Charleston County the ffty-hve
polling places designated by the act are ex-
actly the same as those which existed in 1874,
with three exceptions, two old polling places
being abolished aud three new ones estab-
lished, an increase Of one only over the num-
ber existing previous to the passage of the
act. This act of 1875, which simply designated
by law the polling places which previously ex-
listed by usage, Mr.. OConnor charges was in
tended by the "' Radical leaders to afford
the amplest facilities to their followers
for repeating" and therefore, as soon as the
Democrats got possession of the Legislature,
they passed the ACT of 1878, which, he says,
"reduced the voting precincts throughout
the State, and designated for Charleston
County, exclusive of the city, twenty-five,
and for the city eleven, making together
thirty-three.n
Because the act of 1878 reduced the voting
precincts in Charleston, Mr. O'Cohnor has
taken IL for granted that the act reduced the
number throughout the whole State. Had he
examined the two acts before writing his let
ter he would have found that while the act OF
the Democratic Legislature reduced the vot-
ing-precincts in the large Republican counties
of Charleston, Beaufort, Orangehurgh and
Colleton, yet it increased the polling-places in
seventeen other counties, and left The whole
number only six less than was fixed by the
previous act. Either the Democratic Legisla-
ture did not concur in the opinion that the
act of 1875 afforded the amplest facilities for
repeating, or else they concluded that the Ia
cilities for repeating in certain counties were
not sufficient, and they, therefore, while abol-
ishing forty-siX precincts, mostly in the four
counties Just named, established forty new
ones for the purpose of attording their follow
ers additional facilities for repeating. The
fact that one-half Of the polls abolished are in
Charleston County shows plainly that the
main object of the Legislature was to strike
at the Republican votes Of the largest Repub-
lican county in the State by locating the polls
there so as to virtually disfranchise hundreds
of colored voters. For not only did this new
act Abolish numerous polls Whlcn nau existed
for ten years, but 1t located others beyond the
reach of those voters for whom they were in
tended, and even left some localities without
any polls whatever-for instance, st. An
drew's, on the main. This much have
deemed necessary to say in reply to Mr..
O'Connor's championship of this disgraceful
piece of legislation, by opposing which the
Hon. j. B. Campbell, Democratic Senator
from this county, incurred the bitter hostility
of his own party.
l have devoted so much space to the frauds
in Charleston county that | am compelled to
refer very briefly to those in Orangeburg
County, where the system adopted was the
same as that employed to change the resnlt in
the country precincts of Charleston County,
and which have already described in another
part of this letter. The number of ballots
found in the boxes invariably exceeded the
number of names Of voters recorded on the
poll-list, as will be seen by glance at the
figures of eleven out of the nineteen polls in
that county, as follows: