Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1887-1890, 1889-10-16
THE SILVER BOW PLOT.

in the Tunnel precinct in Silver Bow
county is an act of partisan malice and
which should provoke general
indignation.
1t is gross outrage on popular rights
since the board of canvassers assumes the
highest function which any judicial body
could possess. The board or rather the
majority making itself judge and jury
attempts to deprive some hundred cleo
tors of their votes-declares that they
shall have no part in adopting the consti-
tuition or in electing state aud county
officers. The canvassers who have com
mitted this outrage dare not without due
process OF law deprive the humblest citl-
zen of his liberty or property yet they
assume to rob some hundred electors OF
the franchise, privilege which is of as
great account as liberty or goods.
The republican pretexts for this auda-
c,ous crime are of the tlimsiest kind.
They allege that "there were three in
stead of five judges; that the clerks were
excluded from the count of the vote, and
attached their certifcations after the re-
suit had been ascertained by the Judges
and without their personal knowledge OF
that to the accuracy of which they certi-
fled; that the returns showed more votes
counted than polled; that the count was
conducted by the three judges in secret"
Granting for the sake Of argument that
these allegations are true (Which they are
not there is not one of them which wifi
ates the votes east by the electors. II
Judges absent themselves or if the cleo
tors fail to fill the vacancy that cannot
inyalidate the elactor's vote which is
solemn act Of registration recorded under
all the guarantees and safe guards that
the state can provide. AS well might it
be asserted that il county clerk fails to
record mortgage deed that the instru-
ment is invalid.
As for the counting Of the votes, the
republicans allege iuformalities but they
do not charge that the count was unfair
or fraudulent except that the returns
|
but it is not asserted that the surplus if
any,favored one side more than the other,
or that the alleged ''secret" count was un-
fair. N@
But above all these technicalities and
subterfuges is the law which makes the
duty of the canvassers simply ministerial.
The power is wisely withheld from the
canvassers to declare whether the returns
are valid or otherwise. They are provi-
ded with no judicial powers or legal
machinery for that purpose. Judge Dixon
so informed the canvassers. He said;
"The proposition that the error of a single
man, or of three or five men, should in
validate the election of precinct and
disfranchise perhaps hundreds of men
J is preposterous, and if carried into
effect would make farce of elections;
) would make the will of the people sub,
servient to the will of few Judges OF
clerks"
Judge Dixon also said:" The loarC
could not go behind the returns; its duty
was simply matter of arithmetic. Sub
: stantial compliance with the law on the
art of the makers of the returns wa:
: all the returning board should require
: 1t could not take proof as to fraud ant
$ was not empowered to receive affidavit
9 As to fraud at the polls" Judg,
t Dixon quoted also from Judge Knowles
e who declared from the bench, in the cap
ital removal case, that the canvassers hat
J, nothing to do with the lawfulness of tn
I returns. SIT is no part he said, 80
y their duty to determine what was tn
t. true and legal vote cast, and added
y what they were required to do was t
e determine what the abstract of the re
y turns showed on this question" In tn
VI face of this declaration and of Judg
Dixon's argument in which better ~
l. thoritles were cited, Judge Knowles cor
T. tended on Saturday that two canvassers-
d for such would be majority of tn
E. hoard disfranchise all the electol
II who cast their votes at the Tunnel pr,
W cinct! 1... .........
re This crime against the people must /
N resisted firmly at every step. Like til
$ great crime of 1876 when the presidenc
!" was stolen, it will ussuredly react on a
who are concerned in it. Better would
:" he to relapse for years into territorial =:
Il. i.tence thnI to sanction an act SO foul
'o that which the Silver Bow canvasse
u have perpetrated. ""
i'll -
he D,,,,,>,,. 49, r,. Nr.,