Hand County press. (Miller, Dakota [S.D.]) 1882-1893, 1884-11-20
THE 30 COMMISSIONERS DISTRICT

The district composed of townships
lit. li2, ll3, ia range GS. and one half
OF the townships OF III, II2, lib, ia range
67 designated as district No. = will proba-
bly, have an interesting time at the next
session of court, caused by the CANVASS
ing board refusing to count and throwing
out the votes of the topnships OF range
81.
To give q detailed statement Of what
caused this action ON the part Of tn"
board of canvassers we must once more
go back to the convention. At the Re-
publican district convention called 10y the
committee which st. Lawrence controls,
Mr. J. NJ. Tenoleman, If III -68, was
nominated, receiving the four votes of the
ST. Lawrence delegation. This nomina-
ton wss not favorahiy received by the anti
temperance citizens of the district. aud
the Democrats seeing il concluded now
was their grand opportunity to elect a COM
mi!s..ianpT. ana selected ]. NJ. Gass, Gs
their candidate. This made the second
man in the field from range SO. and con-
trmed the very evident hopes and opin-
ions of ST. Lawrence people. who know
no party affiliations, aud caused division
in the ranks of Miller people, which per-
mittpd them 10 bring forth candidate,
pi,h reasonable chance of electing him.
TO this end they resurrected John King,
who every one supposed had crawled IN
his hole and pdlled it an after him, and
set him Hp for the people of range 81 to
viudicat and reward for his past crankism
la the unreasonable and incxcusible zeal
of st. Lawrence to secure Kings election
the Townships Of that range We're instrnc-
ted to cast their Whole vote for commits
sioner. which they did, although there is
only one halt of each township included
ia this district. and consequently on.y
ONE HALF of the townships were entitled
hy law to vote for commissioner. The
vote as reported gave Class l37, Temple
man II5, and King 10 fro,a this range,
with range 81 solid for King. which by
this wholesale fraud gave the latter q
large ,jority With this understanding
the Democrats entered a protest at the
meeting Of the board of ca .vassers, to the
counting of tie votes cast in the town
ships of range 81. on the ground that 1t
WAS Illegal and an attempt at fraudulent
voting Of non residents Of the district
After the presentation Of the claims OF
both parties by korick on the part of the
Democrats and Baldwin on the part OF st.
lawrence. the board decided To throw out
he entire vote Of range 81 and issued u
certificate Of election to j. NJ Gass. It
is su, posed the matter will he carried into,
the court. which wouli undoubtedly bs
for the best interests af Miller and the
county the allegation Of st. Lawrence
that the G, mrni,sieneis had no authority
TO cut rgnse 81 in two and place the two
halv, in separate districts. would then be
permanently settled and future trouble
wooded. There is no question bat that
the vote is fraudulent, and it would be
preferable to have the matter settled once
and forever.
II st. lawrence had not been SO over
Jealous in the desire to have the whole
county she mil ht have elected her ccm-
missioner by AN honest vote. The re-
turns show that King received 10 votes in
this range. How and why he received
them will likely always ba n mystery 10