The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1889-03-23
s 1MEwHaT UNSATISFACTORY.

The special election law, when it pro
yided that election bills should be passed
upon by the various Boards of County
Commissioners, upon whose action the
State Controller should draw warrants,
looked to speedy disposition Of all cleo.
tion claims, but prescribed method
which would leave the State Treasury
more or less exposed to questionable de.
mands, made through careless or weak
Boards.
The right claimed by the State Board
of Examiners, under the Constitution,
to pa7a upon the legality of all claims
which must be paid from the State
funds, is reasonable one. 1t is reason.
able also to suppose, that the Board,
composed Of the Governor, Secretary OF
State and the Attorney General, would,
in their action on claims, be governed by
the law, fairly construed, and would not
resort to unjust expedients to reduce ex.
penses honestly incurred; yet, by their
action in the wholesale slaughter of de.
nands, they will. by some. be thought
to have done so.
The various Boards of County Com.
missioners directed the election in each
county, and though acting under one
law it was not construed or executed
alike by any two of them. This honest
difference of opinion in several counties
resulted in a variance in the expense in.
Cured for the performance Of the same
service. This explains one class of ap.
parent questionable claims.
At every election held in this county.
mileage claims have been audited at
thirty cents q mile both ways. sixty
cents mile one way. Half this sum
only is allowed by the State Board.
This act Of the State Board however,
lie less questionable than that Of allowing
newspapers pay for but one insertion of
the election proclamation and proposed
amendments. which were printed at
length. The Board construed the law
to mean that but one publication of the
amendments was Necessary. Two inser.
tions were uniformly charged for at legal
rates, and would be allowed in almost
any case in court, in which the publica.
ton of any notice was ordered. The
Board of Examiners last Fall considered
1t unnecessary to make any publication
whatever of the proposed amendments
then to be submitted, which fact, al.
though the amendments were carried,
justified the Supreme Court in adversely
passing on the whole Of them. Thus the
special election became necessary. and
the law which authorized it, provided for
extended and diffusive advertising of the
proposed amendments then to be sub.
mitted. No other means could be de.
vised which would better accomplish the
object desired.
The aggregate of the claims made,
largely exceeded the amount previously
appropriated for their payment, and the
desire of the Board Of Examiners to make
the appropriation cover the whole ex.
pense, led them to reject all claims for
payment of which the law does not spe-
officially provide. forgetting apparently,
that the various Boards Of County Com
missioners, under whose instructions the
bills were incurred, are allowed to exer.
else some discretion in handling county
funds, and that in this matter the short.
ness Of time given rendered slight deyia.
tions from the set course necessary, to &C.
complish the result at all.
As stated by the Board "The result of
the examinations is in some measure un.
satisfactory"