Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-03-19

votes returned by the Secretary of State
Tp. 347l and there is, also, an organized
county of Polk, but there is no county of
Polk and Kittson." See p. 346.] And
there is no law linking these counties to-
gether. It appears by the testimony, [p. 40],
that the 'county of Kittson is not attached
to any other county for any purpose, either
judicial or electlon.'' The county out of
which it was created, Pembina county, was
attached to Clay county, Stat. of MINI.
fore, any part of the above re-
turns refer to the organized county of Kilt
son they should not have been returned to,
canvassed with, or mixed into the returns of
the organized county of Polk. The fore
going certificate is not return of votes cast
in Polk county, or of votes cast in Kittson
county: but the vote is Jumped together as
the vote of "the county of Polk and Kilt
son." and there is no such county in the
district. And if we attempt to separate the
precincts in Kittson county from the precincts
in Polk county, 30 as to enable the county
of Polk to be counted by itself, we are met
by the fact that Farley is shown by the testi-
mony Up. 226) to be in Kittson county, al
though there is nothing on the face of the
return to show that fact. There is no evil
dence to show in which county the precincts
of Bygland,. Vineland, Folsom, Andover,
Lowell, McDonaldville, First district, Hunts
vile and Nelly are situated. Neither does it
appear by the return, or in the evidence,
that the county auditor and justices of the
peace who signed the return held those Of
fees in Polk county or in Kittson county, or
iu any other county.
Moreover, it appears Up. 233 that there
were but &c legal votes cast at Crookston,
while the total vote returned as above was
258; there were therefore ITO illegal votes
cast at that precinct; they were principally
the railroad hands referred to in this report
in our consideration of the subject of brib-
cry, every one of whom was paid for his
vote. 1t also appears, p. 234 that there
we're but 40 residents of the precinct of
Fisher, while SO votes are returned from that
precinct. The precincts in the county of
Kittson were not legally established, there
being no law to authorize the governor to
create election precincts in wholly unorgap-
lied counties; there were no registration lists
at these precincts; cigar boxes aid candle
boxes without locks or keys were used for
ballot boxes; in one precinct the voting place
was railroad car; in another railroad de-
pot; nearly if not quite every vote polled in
two precincts of the county, as We have
shown, was bribed vote, and cast in ma
jority of instances by men who were not le-
gally residents of the county and entitled to
vote therein.
This fraudulent vote of Kittson county
having been inextricably mixed into what
ever legal votes were cast in Polk county, it
became the duty of the sitting member to go
behind this very defective certificate of 'The
county of Polk and Kittson" and prove
alSunde what townships we're in Polk coun-
ty, and by count of the ballots in the bal
lot-boxes of those townships establish, be-
yond question, what votes were legally cast
therein. Having failed to do this we are
constrained to reject the return.