The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-07-09
The Tabulators, Defense Again.

Gov. Garcelon and his tabulators have sought
to explain the irregularities and forgeries of
their miscount by asserting that the returns
were changed after they came into the hands
of the Hale committee. For instance in the
case of the return from Hebron where the
middle initial of the name of Henry G. Walk
er, the Fusion candidate for county commits
sioner, gives convincing proof of having been
changed from co. to &C." they have al
legged that the letter originally written was a
sc, but that the Hale committee scratched
it over with different ink and so manipulated
it as to give it the appearance of having been
changed from &C." This explanation to be
worth anything must not he contradicted BY
anything in the tabulations If it
appears that there are other cases where the
Council acted fraudulently which are suscepti-
BILE of neither this nor any other explanation
then this defense in the Walker case falls to
the ground. for nobody will believe that men
shown to be guilty of one fraudulent transac-
ton to accomplish certain object would hest
tate to commit another to accomplish a similar
one.
In the Denmark district the name of the
Fusion candidate for representative was James
E. Hutchins. The return from Denmark
showed 154 votes thrown for James E. HUTCH
ings. Had these 154 votes been tabulated for
H,ttchings the Republican candidate would
have been elected. They were tabulated. how
ever, for Hutchins and Hutchins was declared
elected.
In the district of Stowe the Fusion candi-
date for representative was named Stanley. In
the return from Stowe sixty-three votes were
returned for STANDBY. The tabulation shows
that these votes were tabulated for Stanley
Had they been tabulated for STANDBY, for
whom they were thrown, the Republican can
didate would have been elected.
The Republican candidate for representative
in the Hanover district was Francis w. Red
lon In the Hanover return thirty-five votes
were given to Francis W. Redlond. The tabu-
lations show that these votes were tabulated
for Redlond not Redlon.
Now it cannot be claimed that the Hale COM
mlttee could have changed either of these re-
turns. If they had inserted the ''g'' in
hutchings, Gov. Garcelon would certainly
have discovered it when he was before the
committee, for he was particularly asked to
point out any case where he thought there had
been alterations. The same is the case with
Standley The 'sd'' could not have been in
serted without discovery. In the case of Red
lond the "d'' must have been there originally
or the Council could not have tabulated it for
''Redlond. The Fusionist doesn't exist with
ingenuity enough to explain these three cases
on any other ground than that the tabulators
had made up their minds to count in Fusion
majority and were willing to resort to any spe-
c'es of fraud to do it. In these three cases
they accomplished their object by applying
rule to count out Republican and violating it
to count in two Fusionists.
When the tabulators clear up these cases per-
haps the public may be ready to listen to their
assertion that they did not change the &c" to
&c" in the Hebron return. Until they do the
public will believe them guilty of forgery in
altering that return and of perjury in charging
the alteration on the Hale committee.