The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-26
VOTING IN IDAHO.

The pro-statehood organs in Idaho have
been printing tables of the alleged returns
from the recent voting on the state consti-
tuition. There We're no restrictions on the
voting. The "early and often" could have
been followed if it had been desired. There
was no authority in law for the election.
and there was no power to prevent illegal
voting. Before the election The HERALD
printed the remark of q gentleman thor
oughly familiar with Idaho politics and az
| quainted with the ways of the bosses up
there. He said the election would be con
| Quoted on the dry goods box and pitchfork
plan; that is, the managers would deter
mine how many votes they needed, would
then pitch the number into the box, and
counting them, make the returns accord
| ingly. That is the way some elections in
certain precincts have been conducted in
our northern neighbor. 1t has even been
charged that the manipulators did not take
the trouble to shovel the ballots into the
boxes, but merely returned that certain
number of votes-all that was necessary
had been cast.
Without restrictions. and in the alb
sence of any law or regulation gov
erning the matter, it is somewhat re
markable that enough votes were not shov-
eled into the boxes on the 5th. instant, to
give Idaho respectable showing when the
petition for admission came before Con
gress. The people could not be induced to
go to the polls. They took little or no in
terest in the matter, first, because they
rpCrqrGpd tho Nybnla huCiuaSC
and next, for the reason that they did not
want statehood with such a constitution as
had been provided and with such a govern
ment as had been arranged for In some
precincts the polls were not opened, and in
whole counties stranger would have been
unable to discover that an election was be
ing held, so little interest was taken in the
matter. The statehood boomers, however.
are not without returns backing their
scheme. How they got them may be imag-
ined when one reads what the Lewis
ton Teller says of tue election in Latah and
Nez Perez counties:
There was no vote taken on the constitution
at Genesee. The Ia ersiSer Cf he SIh makes no
mention of an election III GeneSee, and We were
told by citizens OF the precinct that no vote was
taken in the precinct although it is one Of the
largest precincts in Latah county, Where then
did MCCONNELL get his $500 votes for the con
stitution in Latah county where last year only
about i,4ll votes were pol!ed in the whole
county, which was considered the full vote of
the county, The people don't believe the re
returns rs sent IN regard to Latah county
The election IN NeZ Perez county held in
strict conformity 10 law, resulted in Il - for the
constitution and 03 against giving total Of i5
votes. There was little interest manifested and
only about one-third of the total vote OF the
county polled In 1888 Ncz Perez county cas-
65O votes IN the congressional election.
The fact is, the election must be accepted
as a popular Reputation of the scheme de-
vised by few politicians for their personal
benefit at the expense of the young com
monwealth. The intelligent people of
Idaho do not want statehood. They know
that the territory is lacking both in popu-
lation and developed wealth to successfully
maintain a state government They are
aware that Idaho is vigorous and progress
sive, and rich IN resources as soon as they
shall be developed and made valuable, but
at present the young community is in no
condition to accept the burden which state.