Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-03-25
laitcaste1 flltelliqe1lrer.
SATURDAY EvEN'a, MARCH rs, lsG
The Relevancy OF 1t.

SATURDAY EvEN'0, MARCH Is, l0e2.
The Relevancy OF 1t.
The Examiner says the INTELL1.
GENCER indulges its fancy in great
deal of irrelevant talk in its notice of the
contested election in the First ward OF
this city, Let US see how this is.
The INTELL1GENCER has said
Very naturally, therefore, when this last
contest is inauguratsd and the affidavit
made by two of the same ready swearers
who made affidavit that Steinmetz had re.
ceived 900 illegal votes and who retreated
SO disgracofully from that memorable con-
test, the public might suspect that another
fiasco was being inaugurated. This sus-
p'cion would be strengthened BY recol.
lection of the fact that of the affidavit
makers in both cases-intent on securing
honest elections-it was shown in the
Steinmetz .Leaman contest that of the
bogus tax receipts issued In that cam
paign some were procured at Chas. f.
Eberman's instance, and that on election
day the collector sat in John A. Hiestand's IS
back Office issuing and dating back these
bogus receipts.
How much of this is ' fancy may be
determined by a reference to the fact that
on Tuesday, December 10, 1875, before
the commissioners appointed to take the
testimony in the Leaman-Steinmetz
election contest, Tax Collector Albert
X. Warfel swore that in the
preceding campaign he had issued
tax receipts and dated them as
of other date than that of their
issue that he received $500 on October
6, 1876, from the treasurer of the Repub'
lican county committee; that in consid-
Grafton Of this he subsequently-up to
and On the day of election-issued tax
receipts for Republican politicians, and
dated them back to thirty days before
the election, that one of the politicians
who furnished him with names for these
bogus receipts was Charles F. Eberman,
and that on election day, when he was
still engaged in issuing such receipts, he
had his headquarters in Mr.. John A.
HieStand's Eca0.iner Office. So much
for the fact and fancy" of the matter
AS to it's relevancy This same HES
tan6 and Eberman now make an affida
Wit that the election in the First ward
last month was undue and Illegal -
not because any body voted who had no
constitutional right to vote, but because
the election officers neglected to comply
with some technical requirements of the
law. In view of the fact that these
same affidavit makers five years ago re-
treated in disgrace from the contest
which they had invoked, when it was
shown that they were implicated in this
bogus tax receipt business, we repeat
that the public needs some assurance
that they now ask for another contest
sin the interest Of honest elections" The
suspicion that their interest is not such
an exalted one is strengthened by the
fact that for years both of them have
been in close fellowship with the return
tinkers, ballot box suffers, forgers of
naturalization papers and fabricatOrs of
bogus tax receipts, whose performances
have made local elections carnivals OF
fraud.
If illegal and void votes have been
received anywhere we trust to see them
thrown out and If election officers have
conducted elections ''in open and fragrant
disregard of a plain provision of the
law" we hope they will be prosecuted !;
although movement TO this end
simply in the interest of honest elec-
tions'' would be general and not con-
fined to a single district in which it
was expected to result in slight parti-
san advantage.
Furthermore, it is somewhat doubtful
whether the neglect of election officers
to do their duty is sufficient to disfran-
chise persons legally entitled to vote. It
may have been decided that all voters
not on the registry, and not fortified by
this proof Ia written or printed affida-
Wit, and that affidavit filed with the elec-
tion returnsl are illegal and void" The
decisions of the lower courts on the
election laws are notoriously conflicting.
The constitution says that every male
citizen twenty-one years of age, and hav-
ing certain qualifications, "sHALL be
entitled to cote at all elections - and "no
elector shall he deprived of the privilege
of voting by reason of his name not
being registered. The constitution no.
where gives the Legislature power
to abridge these qualifications and,
while it may pass laws to regulate cleo
tions, it may direct officers how to con.
duct them, and may enact that their
failure to require due proof of voters
rights shall be misdemeanor, yet neither
Legislature nor courts can cast out
lawful votes because Of the failure of the
officers to qualify the voter, any more
than they can cause lawful votes unduly
excluded by election officers to be counted.
If election officers admit voters, duly
qualified, to cast their ballots, without
requiring the legal proof, they may be
prosecuted, but the remedy is not in the
disfranchisement of the voters.
For some time the weekly Inquirer, of |
this city, has been engaged in the rather |
arduous task Of trying to prove that the |
INTELL1GENCER "lied" when it said |
If did not know uhokhor or mt II bod