The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1879-01-01


ca tho list kept By the United States
Supervisor. Still another fraud by
the omission Of numbers was proved.
Thus by numbering the twentieth
man that voted twenty-five, and those
who came after him in order, the
last mans number which was taken
as showing the whole number OF
voters, would be Eve too great; and
If this was repeated. the total hum
Der might be made to appear much
larger than it really was. BY these
three tricks the poll lists made out by
the clerk seemed to contain l36
names in excess Of the actual number
of voters. When the box was opened
tie number of ballots in il, including
tissue paper tickets, was found to be
more than 200 in excess of the poll
list that had been frsudulently in
creased, and In drawing out the ex-
cess, Republican votes were removed
The result OF all these frauds was
that, although the Republicans had
q majority Of the votes actually cast,
the returns gave Aiken, the Demo-
cratic candidate for Congress, 524
votes, and Ensor, the Republican
candidate. eight, and there were four
blanks. 1t was proved 10 the trial
that at least 100 Republican votes
were cast at that poll, and the Gov
ernnsn, stopped at that point, not
thinking it necessary to go further.
The defence did not undertake to
meet these facts, and the jury stood
eight for aequittal and four for con-
viction. 0ne Democrat and three
Republicans voted for conviction.
The last case tried was against the
managers of election at the Calhoun
Precinct of Clarendon county. Here,
after the polls were closed, the man
ayers licked the box up in the build
ing where the election took place and
lef6i. over night instead of counting
the votes at once as directed by the
law Of the State. In the morning
-he box could not be found. The de-
fence in the case was that the man
agers were afraid to remain and
count the votes. The jury was COM
posed of three Republicans and nine
Democrats, and when it first went
out stood FIVE for conviction and
seven for scquittal Finally eleven
voted 10 acquit aud one 20 convict.
All these cases were brought un-
der Section 5,5l5 of the Revised
Statutes, which provides:
That every officer of an election,
at which any Representative or dele
gate in Congress is voted for, wheth-
er such officer of election be appoint
ed or created by or under any law or
authority Of the United States, or by
or under any STATE, Territorial or
municipal law or authority, who ne
elects or refuses to perform any duty
in regard to such election required Of
of him by any law of the United
States or Of any State or Territory
thereof or who violates any duty 30
imposed, or who knowingly does any
acts thereby Unauthorized, with in-
tent to affect any such election or the
result thereof, or who fraudulently
makes sny false certificate Of the re-
suit Of such election in regardto to such
Representative or delegate, or who
8ithholds, conceals, or destroys any
certificates of records so required by
law respecting the election Of any
sucn Representative or delegate, or
who neglects or refuses to make and
return such certificate, as required by
law, OF who aids, counsela, proeures
or advises any voter, person or Of
icer 70 do any act by this or any of
the preceding sections made crime,
or 10 omit to do any duty the omis-
sion Of which is by this or any OH
er OF such sections made crime, or
attempts to do so, shall be punished
as prescribea~in Section 5,511.
II wss-rhUught to be useless to try
any more of the cases at the last
term Of the court, and so they were
continued. The United States At
to-ney and his assistant intend to
make up large number Of test cases
for the April term Of the court.
They believe there are enough
Conservative Democrats in Charles
ton from whom a jury can be drawn
to insure 9 fair trial at that time.