Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-01-09
The Maine Outrage.
SOME ADDITIoNAI rOINTs SHOWN rr.

strong light We quote some passages
Portland chose five Republican represent
atives by an average majority of G29 votes.
In the return 143 votes were placed opposite
the word Scattering. For this reason the
entire return was rejected AID Portland de-
prived of representation. II was urged be-
fore the Governor and Council that no evi-
dence whatever was before them TO show
that the 143 ballots with simply the word
scattering thereon were not cast as returned,
and furthermore that, Erantin the irregular
ity, il was obvious on the face of the return
that the votes opposite the word scattering
could not be SO placed or assigned as TO de
stroy or affect the plurality, or even the alb
solute majority, of anv one of the five Re
publican candidates After depriving Port
land of representation in this way the Gov
ernor and Council declined to authorize Il
new election, so that it appears 10 have been
an intentional design to exclude Portland
from all voice or vote in the organization of
the Legislature The destruction of Port
lands right of representation is rendered all
the more significant from the fact that the
return of last year, as well as of his year.
contained votes returned as scattering Gases
in this State are numerpr where that word
has been used from the coSlt a the Suberna-
torial vote by the Ieei,la i,f' down to the
smallest Town officer, and the exclusion OF
Portland by Gov. GarcclcI and his Council
is the first known instance in which return
has been invalitlaicd thereby. In the very
first election in Mainc as Il State, when VIII
liam King WAS chosen Governor in 1890, the
word scattering appeared in the returns Of
some towns. The canvassing board was
composed in large part of men who had
! taken part in the formation of the constitu-
ton the same year. 1t Is significant
| circumstance that a hoard thus composed
| should decide that the word scattering did not
! invalidatc 4 return, thus giving at the outset
Il construction 10 the Constitution by men
/ who had assisted in framing it, By the
| Constitution it is made the duty of the Gov
crnor and Council TO issue a certificate To
the person who appears hy the face of the
return to be elected. BY the Portland re-
turn, construed in any possible way, it I'M
mistakably appears that the five Republican
candidates received a clear ma iority of all the
votes cast, but the Governor and Council re-
! fused to all five the certificates the Constitu-
| tion commands
The four other diSiranchised cities Lewis
ton, Saco Bath and Rockland were, like.
Portland, denied representation. but for a
different reason. In the aggregate the four
cities are entitled To seven REPRESENTATIVES
and they were all disiranchised for the same
reason. namely, that the election return from
each city was signed by only three aldermen
whereas the Governor and Council decided
that il required four. Under the understood
practice of former Governors and Councils
this defect was easily supplied from the
record. hut Governor Garcclon and his Coun-
| ell refused TO allow this correction. The
wrong done these cities is greatly aggravated
ht- tI, f,, hat hn In
election returns from the cities. sent out
from the office of the Secretary of
State TO city officers, contained Il ruled
space for the signatures of officers first
Il dotted line, with the word .'mayor' at
the end; next. and close up to the
| first line, come three dotted lines only
enclosed with Il brace at the end, with the
word Aldermen against the brace; closely
following came fifth line with the words
city clerk al the end 1t would he i'm
possible for any intelligent man on looking
al the blank to suppose that the signature II
of more than three aldermen could he cx-
pected. The Secretary of State could give
no reason for this extraordinary form of
blank, never used in previous years, and for
the first time seen in Maine. Its use is all
the more remarkable from the fact that an
abundant supply of blanks for city returns
was already in his Office These circum-
stances afford strong presumptive proof that
Il desperate plo, was formed in advance of
the election 10 disfranchisc Republican cities
and that in the case Of four of them the plot
was successful
A mistake occurs in the spelling of the
name of John Burnham in the return for the
town of Ashland, the silent letter III being
omitted, and the Governor and Council decid-
ed to call John Bnrnan a..E Efa'p pnraRty nRt ifa! faar!
Alfred Cushman. In ca Maine. 500, the Su-
preme Court explicitly held that when 4
name is misspellcd but is recognizable by its
sound on the face of the returns as that of Il
candidatc.'it is the duty of the Governor
and council to count the name misspeled for
the candidate for whom it was obviously in
tended" Moreover, in the lIarpswell- Scar
boro District, the Democratic vote of Scar
boro is returned for Melville F. Hunnewel
and the Democratic vote Of IIarpswell for
Melville p. Hunncwel, and in the New Cas-
tie District the Democratic returns for James
W. Clarke and in two other towns for James
W. Clark, yet the Governor and Council, in
order to seat Democratic Representatives
from those districts, have counted those
names as identical. \ few days after this
remarkable decision in the Ashland case,
Llewellyn Powers, being permitted to exam
inc the returns from the district. found that
in Merrill plantation, giving Il large Demo
cratic majority. the Representative vote was
returned for Afford Cuslman. Mr. Powers
called the attention of the Governor and
Council TO this fact, which they had over
looked, and insisted that, if Burnam could
not be taken for Burnham idem sonans, AL
ford could not bc taken for Alfred, not idem
sonans nor indeed the same name Gov
Garcelon expressed his surprise at the revela-
ton, and said that it should he corrected.
If both were counted, or both rejected
Burnham would in either event he elected.
The Council To avert this conclus ion resortcd
To Il very singular process. The town of
llersey, belonging to the district, gave 20
votes for Burnham and for Cushman, and
had been So counted, tabulatrd and de
clared by the Governor and Council in their
official examination. They now took it
up afrcsh. and some person skilled III the
counting of Aroostook votes averrcd that the
names of the second and third selcctmen
were written in the same hand, namely, that
of third sclcctnan; hut that would not do
alone, for that left two genuine signatures
that of the first and third sclcctmen, and left
the return good. William Dicky of Fort
Kent then informed the public that First
Sclcctnan Tozicr was IN alien. and that
Councillor Parker knew all about il. When
Councillor Parker was present at the time
the vote of llcrsey was counted, he con
Cured in regarding it rs regular and legal
but now, with Councillor Parker 200 miles
away in Aroosiook the valuable statement
of William Dickcy as to what Parker knew
and could tell, if he Were present is accept
ed as conclusive on the important issue of
dsfranchsing a town and changing the re
nrpSpnt nj ION al a district If all the actions
of the Governor and Council, this last one is
regarded as the most extraordinary and in
defensiblc. The returns from Pennington
stood thus Whole number of ballots S42
Charles A. Thomas had i37 votes. Lewis
Vote had lnl votes. The sum total of those
votes is S3s. The sum total of the ballots is
stated at Si2. On the prctcNt of this dis
crepancy the Council rejected the return,
disfranchised Pennington, and counted in II
man who was not elected. though i'll the
Democratic town of Marysvillc in Aroosiook
county the whole number of ballots is l6l. .
while the sum of the vote is 1872. and still
the return Is counted by the Governor and
Council.
They discovered in the Republican town
OF Otislield that II statement of the whole
number OF votes had been omitted. and forth
with Otisiield was thrown oul. though the re-
turn was absolutely laulleSS except in that
one non-esscntial point. More reductions
being still demanded ON the Republican vote
the Governor and Council found Wcstarock
to he the only available spot. Here they
found that the Republican vote was 36O Tho.
vote was given in full in both letters and
figures opposite the name oi Joseph A.
Locke, but opposite the names of lockc's
! Republican colleagues ditto marks were used
| both under the letters and figures ON this