The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1889-12-09
A Great New York Journals Editor
ial Review of the Montana Re-
turning Board Steal
A Crime Against the Ballot Never
Parallelled in a Northern
State.
The Great Conspiracy Followed and Anal
wed step by Stsp-Read the Clear
Record.

The New York Times of Wednesday con
tains striking editorial review of the
Montana situation which presents in con-
secutiye form the points at issue between
the two parties. II says:
Montana has come into the Union with a
cry from one party that the other has tried
TO ''steal the state" and with deadlock
in the legislature that threatens to pre-
vent the election of United States sen
ators for some time TO come. This dead
lock in due TO disputed election results in
Silver Bow county and the claim of both
parties to control the lower branch. the up
per being equally divided. This situation
has been produced by a strange resort TO
the returning-board methods TINT charac-
terized elections in certain southern states
in the reconstruction period. The difference
is that these methods were provided for and
those southern states, but had no shadow of
legal justification in Montana.
When the result of the election of Oct
was first made known il was evident from
the unofficial returns thnt the democrats
had elected the governor, that the senate
was tie, and that the democrats had a
very small majority in the lower branch of
the Legislature, giving them assurance of
the two United States senators. Before
the official canvass was made il WAS dis
covered by the republican leaders that in
one precinct Of Silver Bow county the dem
ocrats had III votes out Of n total of 1T,
and that il the vote of this precinct were to
be thrown ont the result would be the elec.
tion of republican representatives in that
county and a complete change of control in
the Legislature. Then a cry of fraud was
raised. ON no ground except that all but
three of the votes in that precinct were re.
turned as democratic. There was nothing
particularly strange about this, as NJ Craig
every vote cast was republican, and at Bon
ner the republicans had 15O out of 152.
This precinct No. 81 OF Silver Bow
county WIS simply camp of ralrond work
men. The vote was taken by the Austral-
| ian method and there was the result III ia
3. The evidence Of fraud produced before
the board of county canyassers. who were
epublicans, consisted Of what purported To
he an affidavit signed by eight men, declar-
ing that they had voted for republican can
didates in precinct No. "a. These were OBJ
tanned by a man hired for the purpose. who
had been convicted of murder in Idaho ter
ritory. OF the eight men whose names
were signed to this paper four have sworn
that they never signed il, and the other four
disappeared and could not be found. Com
panions Of one of these have declared that
they were asked TO sign the affidavit, and
promised reward IL they would do so and
that they knew of the signature Of one mnp
being got when he was drunk.
Not only was this trumped-up evidence
worthless, hut the county cnnvassers had no
power in regard tO the returns of votes ex-
cept to make abstracts" of them and as.
certain ,he result indicated by their face.
They had no right whatever to reject them
ON any ground. One of the republican law
yers who argued before them that they could
| reject the return of a precinct for fraud.
had previously, rs "a judge on the bench, ex.
plicitly stated in similar Case that nothing
of the kind could be done. II is plain from
the territorial law under which the election
WINS held, that the canyassers had no sucl
power. They nevertheless pravelV decided
10 throw out precinct No. 80, and
Immediately writ of mandamus
was served upon them requiring them
|
PEELED 10 include the vote of that precinct
and restraining them from proceeding with
the count until after the decision of the
question. Nevertheless, il appears that
| they made up and signed n return without
including that precinct. II will be remem-
bered that howl wns made for the removal
of Judge DeWolfe because he granted the
mnndamus, that the state canvass WAS hur-
ried up to forestall final decision in the
| tI.... 49,
| the state and putting an end TO the terri
torial court was issued in hot haste before
the official messenger reached Washington.
The state board of canyassers, consisting
| of the governor, secretary and chief Justice
Of the territory. acted with as much precip-
itation and disregard of law ms the county
board. There had been decision in the
Silver Bow case against the returning
board action of the canvassers, and an ap-
peal WIS pending when the state board met
ON Oct. 81. II had nothing 10 do under the
enabling act Of congress except 90 canvass
the returns on the adoption of the consti-
tntion and certify the result 10 the presi-
dent County returns were certified
10 the secretary Of the territory
by the clerks of the county commits
sioners, and the clerk Of Silver Bow
county WIS democrat, and sent up the
returns including the vote Of precinct No.
could get no other though messenger was
sent for il 10 Butte. Notwithstanding this,
without waiting for determination of the
legal controversy they hurried OIL their
certificates 10 Washington, including the
vote of Silver Bow county without precinct
No. "a. In spite of the headlong haste of
the state canvassers their messenger could
not reach Washington soon enough. they
feared, to forestall the action Of the court,
and the president. in response TO tele-
grams and without consulting his cabinet.
issued his proclamation admitting the state
before the messenger arrived though other
telegrams were sent asking for delay. With
out his aid the returning board scheme
might have miscarried
But this was NOT the full extent Of the re-
turniug-bOard methods of the state canvass
ers. They had legally nothing 10 do with
declaring the election of state officers or
members of the legislature. This was not
provided for in the enabling act and was
regulated entirely by the election laws of
the territory. These required the clerk of
the board Of county commissioners 10 issue
certificates Of election TO such persons as
appeared 10 have a majority Of votes for the
Legislature, which certificates were made
p lima fncie evidence of the right of the
holders 10 seats in the Legislature. But the
POLITICAL control Of the legislature depend