The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-01-08
the MAINE {. CONTEST.
THECOUNCII'S REPORT ON
THE CANVASS.
Gov. Garcelon's Address to the Pub
lie And How it Was Received.

41c Auu III" IL " as hece1VeQ.
Correspondence Between Gar
celon and Morrill,.
The following is an abstract from the
report of the committee on the Maine
election returns made in council:
Your committee in submitting this
report, deem it necessary to state spe-
officially certain facts connected with
) the returns from many of the towns,
cities and plantations, in which we
have materially affected the result, by
canvassing the votes returned. There
are many returns, which owing to the
fatal defects cannot be counted; but we
shall specify only those which have az
fected the result.
Article four, part one. section five, of
the constitution regulates the manner
OF electing senators and representatives
to the legislature, and also the process
of transmitting to the governor and
council the process by which they
are to determine Who have been
elected. This section provides that in
case of towns and plantations, the
= municipal officers shall, in open town
and plantation meeting, at the close of
election day, sort, count and declare
the votes cast and forward list of all
persons voted for and after the name
of each person, thus voted for, shall
write the number of votes received by
him. This list shall be recorded in
open meeting by a clerk and copy Of
this recorded list shall be signed by the
selectmen and attested by the clerk
and sealed up in open meeting. This
copy of recorded lists, thus attested, is
to be deposited in the Office of secre-
tary of state within 80 days thereafter.
A section of the revised statutes re-
quires that in addition to the foregoing
specific and mandatory provisions Of
the constitution, the returns shall state
: the whole number of ballots cast at the
election. The same section of the con-
stitution requires that the governor and
council shall open and compare the re-
turns, thus transmitted, and from them
determine who appear to be elected,
and the governor is to issue to such
persons as thus appear to be elected, a
summons to take the seats in the legis-
lature. Of course the first require
ment is that the returns shall be made
and sealed up in open town and planta-
ton meetings. We understand this is
required in order that the electors may
be present, and see that the returns are
made in accordance with the facts; and
we are of the opinion that the returns
not made up in open meeting are not
illegal returns, and cannot be counted,
and we have acted upon this belief in
making our tabulations. Several pro-
tests accompanied with afidavits to
support them against counting of the
returns specified therein, have
been considered by us. These
protests allege that said returns
should not be counted because they
were not made up in open town meet
ing, but were made after the meeting
closed in some private Office or store,
when no one but a portion of the NUM-
cipal officers we're present, and in some
cases only the clerk. This condition of
things in several cases has been proven
to our entire satisfaction and we have
rejected the returns thus defective in
our tabulations. In the case of the
town of Stoneham, an affidavit signed
by the two select men establishes the
faet that they signed the returns in
blank and the town clerk took them
home and filled them up and the
selectmen had no knowledge of what
the returns contained.
For the foregoing reasons we have
rejected in our tabulations the returns
from the towns of Jay, Stoueham, Lis
bon, Webster and Pennington. The
returns from the town of Searspcrt
haze also been rejected because it was
not sealed up IN open town meeting.
BY means of these reflections, few
perons will receive seats in the legisla-
ture who would not have been thus
seated. had the returns from the afore-
said towns been made up az the consti-
tuition requires. These are JAS. O..
White, of Jay district; Louis Voter, of
Pennington district; N. Bradbury, of
Seneham district; Joshu E. Gordon, of
Searsport district; and Leonard H..
Beale. of Derham district.
The supreme court have held that the
municipal officer shall sign the returns
with their own hands or make their
marks; otherwise the returns cannot be
counted. We have found several re-
turns fatally defective in this particular
and have accordingly rejected them.
BY this rule, laid down by the court,
the New Sharon returns have been by
us rejected. This rejection affects the
election of one representative.
We found several returns fatally de-
fective because they were not attested
by the town clerk. The supreme court
have neld that such are not legal
returns and we have rejected them.