St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-10
CANVASSING THE VOTE.
The Council Figures Up the Official
Returns.

An adjourned meeting of the city council
was held yesterday afternoon for the pur-
pose of eanvassing the vote cast at the late
city election, and to take some action on
the reQnestof zA1d. Dowlan for recount
ing in his district.
AID. DOWLAN'S CONTEST.
Onsbiie council being called to order Aid.
Otis made a motion that the council pro-
coed to recount the votes in the Second al
dermanic district of the First ward, (Ald.
DOwlan's) district
Mr.. c. n. Bell, who appeared for Mr..
Simpson, who, it is claimed, beat Aid.
DOwlan by two votes, declared that it would
be strange proceeding to re-eXamine a
vote before such vote was canvassed. No
canvass, he said. had yet been made, and
yet the COUNCIL proposed to recount the vote
before it had any official notice. Who
knows but that AID. DOwlan is elected on
the face of the returns.
The council saw the force of the point
and ordered a canvass of the vote.
Mr.. Bell. as soon as the council started
to do this, read the notice served upon Mr..
Simpson, giving him notice of the recount
appointed to take place on Saturday after
noon. He maintained that that could not
be done. When that notice was prepared
and sent to MI Simpson no canvass had
been made, and consequently it was notice
to examine into the matter beforehand.
The whole proceeding was unauthorized
and illegal. The council and its clerk have
no right OF authority to open the boxes or
break the seal.
Mr.. John B. Brisbin, who represented
Aid. Dowlan, in replying to MI. Bell said
the latter had jumped before he got to the
fence, and argued that he and Aid. Dow
Ian had followed the law, and that every
thing thus far had been done in accordance
with the statutory requirements.
Mr.. Bell called for the reading of Mr..
Dowlan's notice of recount, and after it
. had been read argued that the proceedings
were not legal. He then read the law to
show how the ballots should be taken care
of, and claimed that the council had no
authority to touch the ballots, and that it
could not resolve itself into voting pre-
cinct and elect member of
the council. The clerk can de-
cline to do this. He is above the
council and the council cannot compel the
clerk to break the seal, open the boxes and
exhibit the vote. The council, he said. had
gone as far as it could go legally under the
law in canvassing the vote as it had.
Mr.. Brisbin said that the law referred to
by Mr.. Bell had no more relevancy to the
case than Jules Verne's trip to the moon.
He claimed the statute made
THE COUNCIL THE JUDGE
of its own members. The law referred to
by Mr.. Bell did not apply. The law states
expressly that the council shall be the Judge
Of its own members and no court will inter-
fere. Mr.. Brisbin supposed case when a
large fraudulent vote had been cast, and
maintained that the council had
authority to investigate the facts. and
in speaking of this he spoke of
the small salary paid aldermen and ex-
pressed the belief that the aldermen would
much prefer to be somewhere else than in
the council, and abiding to Aid. p. H.
Kelley, said he had no doubt that that gen
tleman would much prefer to be in Wash
ington attending to Donnelly than to he
where he was. which raised little laugh
ter.
Mr.. Bell started to speak again, when
President Smith asked the council how
many times it was willing to listen to
speeches. Mr.. Brisbin said he was through,
and Mr.. Bell said he had but a few more
words to utter, and was allowed to speak.
he simply reiterated what he had before
SAID, and expressed the hope that the clerk
would not break the seal and open the box
and that the matter should be laid over.
Ald. DOwlan was in no hurry to have
anything done, and was willing to abide by
the decision of the council. He would like
to hear from those members of the council
that were lawyers
Mr.. Otis thought it a very serious ques-
ton whether the council had right 70
open the boxes. He would much prefer to
have the matter postponed so that it could
be more fully examined.
AID. Cornish had not examined the SUBJ
ject, and knew nothing more about it than
what he had learned iii the council but he
thought that before the council went much