Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-04-21
south Carolina Election Fraud Trial.


To the surprise of most people at the North,
the election fraud trials in South Carolina
give promise of proving something more than
a mere farce. Three persons have already
been convicted in the United States Court at
Charleston of obstructing federal supervisor
of elections in the performance of his duty
The accused were the managers of election in
Acton Precinct, Richland county. There
were eight counts in the indictment against
them. The first, second and third charged
that the managers had hindered and OBJ
structed the Supervisor of Election in the
performance of his duty by refusing to allow
him to see whether or not the ballot-box was
empty before the voting began. The remain
ing counts charged the managers with stufing
the ballot-box with tissue ballots. The evil
dence was strong in support of all the counts.
That the Supervisor was hindered in the per-
Torrance of his duty was established so clear
ly that the jury could not refuse verdict to
that effect. On the other counts it was shown
conclusively that there were tissue ballots in
the box, but the jury gave the benefit of the
doubt about the way in which they got there
to the managers, and let that point pass.
A large number of witnesses called by the
Government testified that the Supervisor, at
the opening of the poll, requested the man
ayers to let him see the inside of the ballot
box. At first they refused to do this, but
finally they pulled the lid of the box open
little way, but would not allow the Supervisor
to scrutinize the box or handle it so that he
might be satisfied that it was empty. When
the polls closed in the evening one of the
managers violently jerked off the lid and
placed it by his side. In looking into the
box the Supervisor saw a number of pink
tissue ballots, headed Democratic ticket for
$780," He informed the crowd of the fact
and pronounced the election u farce. The
box lid was examined and was found to con-
tain four strings pressed into the lid, the
theory of the Government being that the It's
sue ballots were attached to the cover when
the voting began, and were loosened by Jerk
ing off the lid when the voting was done. In
counting the ballots, one bundle of 25 tissue
tickets was found tied with string, which
failed to break when the lid was withdrawn.
| In other instances several tissue tickets were
| foundlappedtogeth but were not thrown out.
| There were 5S7 names on the poll-list and
673 ballots in the box. In compliance with
the remarkable provision of the state law in
such cases provided, the excess of SO ballots
were drawn out by the clerk of the election
after being blindfolded. 1t was very easy for
him to draw out ballots which were printed
on stiff paper and of larger size than the
tissue tickets, and as the result GS Republican
and 1S Democratic ballots were Withdrawn.
The defence, instead of attempting to account
for the excess of tickets in the box, attempt
ed to impeach the testimony of the witnesses
of the prosecution, and this they were en-
abled to do in a most thorough manner, per-
jury in election trials appearing to be no
crime in South Carolina.
In view of the most strenuous efforts made
by the Democratic managers, the state officers
and the Democratic press, it is quite remark
able that the prosecution, which made a clear
case, was able to secure a partial verdict
This verdict is serious enough to cause the
chiValry good deal of inconvenience. The
penalty prescribed by the statutes for OBJ
structing or hindering a Supervisor in the
discharge of his duty is imprisonment for not
more than two years or a fine of not more
than three thousand dollars, or both fine and
imprisonment, and costs of the prosecution
Two of the white jurors seem to have been
successfully bulldozed after they had signed
the verdict, for they informed the Court on
Monday that they had signed on Saturday
under a Misrepresentation and under stress
of bodily pain )" but the Court very proper
ly ruled that their avowal, coming after their
] verdict had been rendered and themselves