The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-05-30
Fn,rs Of the Mtnoritg.

4 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
i state Of Louisiana.
/ Committee on Contested Elections
To the Honorable President and Members o
the Constitutional Convention:
Your Committee on Contested ELECTIONS
have had under consideration the contest 3
q. Ii. Tehault and james Nugent VS.. james
Mcdonnell and John Phelps, and report
| That SO far aS any conspiracy or bribery OF
violence are concerned. as has been alleged
no facts have been established to sustain
these allegations but at Poll No some I'M.
due influence was exarted to cause one Of the
commissioners to sign the returns, which ht
only signed under protest. and we are salts.
fled change Of tickets has certainly taken
place, changing the result as announced by
the commissioners.
The total Of the votes, as reported hy the
commissioners ut all the polls. Is: For John
Phelps, G53: for James Mcdonnell, 5a6; for q.
Il. lebault, 544; for james Nugent, 557. and
leaving out the ninth poll. at which the re-
turn = vltlated BY error and fraud the vote
Mcconnell. 5lh; for q. II. febault, 475; for
James Nugent, 494. The question for your
COMMITTEES to determine is, what Is the real
vote cast at poll NO9. The election was pre-
fort appointed by the Registrar, and whom
all agree IN commencing very highly as
truthful and worthy young man
The other two had not been appointed by
the Registrar. One Of them was E. Mafer
also admitted To be a truthful and good man !:
the other was Nixon, whose character has
been doubted, though no special reason is
given for this accusation. We have the testi-
mony OF tho three commissioners and that of
the clerk. J. J. Maher, and they agree In their
account of what TRANSFERRED.
The election during the day was quiet and
legal. When the box was closed the commits
sioners proceeded to count and tally the
tickets. Mr.. Maher. the commissioner, took
the tickets out of the box and read them out;
he swears he called them out correctly. Mr..
Mahoney stood behind and watched him. and
he swears Mr.. Maher called out correctly;
these tickets thus read out, one by one, were
handed by Mr.. Maher to Mr. Nixon who
swears he scrutinized every one, and corrob-
crates the testimony Of Maher and Mahoney,
that they were called out correctly These
12s tickets were called out and tailed, and it
seems to us that thus far tt Is impossible to
say there Is any possibility Of any fraud hay-
ing been perpetrated.
The l2S tickets were handed to one King.
who was not an officer Of the poll, and not I'M
der OATH whose character and reputation Ia
shown not to be of the best, having been In
dicted for forgery, on which he pleaded guilty
OF obtaining money under false pretenses. He
was charged with the duty OF styinging these
tickets OH thread
When these f2S tickets had been thus count
ed. it seems the two tally men, Sickfort, the
commissioner, and ]. j. Maher, the clerk,
found discrepancy OF one In the talies of
Phelps only. the others being correct, Maher
having one more for Phelps than Sickfort.
After some discussion 1t was decided to recount
the vote o. Phelps. Having done 50, they
found the difference much greater: so much
SO that they decided to recount all the tickets
for all the candidates.
La this count strange to say, there was the
same number OF tickets, but the vote was
very materially changed for all the candi-
dates, increasing that OF Phelps and McCon-
nell by over twenty, and diminishing that Of
the other ticket
Without assigning any reasons for it, or ac-
counting for this change. the commissioners. |
the protest and objection OF
Sickfort, adopted the second count. In this |
your committee think they were wrong. and
{ hehooves us TO ascertain what was the real
,ote east.
By an examination Of the tallv-sbeet kent
~ the clerk, Maher, and filed In the office of the
slefk OF the Superior Criminal Court. we find |
hat II has been scratched and this ttif1i11p
5 thus explained: The talies of the first count
we're erased and the tallies Of the second
cunt were written over the eraSure, and bv
hat tally-sheet it is impossible to discern and
determine the first count, but inspecting the
ally-sheet kept by Slckfort, signed by the
commissioners and returned with the commits
toner's statement of votes to the office Of the
secretary Of State, the two counts are very
lainly Indicated, the torn or first count Of
- tickets and the count of the forty-one
ekets that had remained In the box after the
rst lbs had been taken out We have besides
separate count or tally OF these forty-one
ckets in Sickfort's testimony, showing that
Il these forty-one tickets Phelps got ten
otes, James Mcconnell five Tebault twenty
ght Nugent twenty-seven.
1t is very safe to say that at the first count
lere could not have been any mistake. and
one Is alleged, much less any found; but in
le second count there is every reason to be-
eve, and the testimony leads us to believe
lat there was fraud Ia the manipulation OF
le tickets in their passage from Nixon to
g believe this is the time when the change }
as effected by q substitution Of tickets of
helps and Mcconnell for like number of
eeault and Nugent tickets, though there be