Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-10-30
STATE OF KANSAS.
Dickinson County. So.

| - A0AlJs VI lawful age, Delng
first duly sworn, on his oath, says:
My name is H. V. NJ. Early. 1 am
citizen and voter of Grant township,
IN Dickinson county, Kansas. On
wednesday, the first day of October,
A. d. 1890, attended the republican
primary election held in said township.
When approached the polls, Andrew
Kline, Judge of the election and law
student OF 9. S. Crawford, asked me to
vote for Crawford for county attorney
and furnished me with ticket which
he asked me to vote. Upon examining
the ticket L found that the name of
Z. ). Crawford was erased, leaving the
name OF G. W. Hurd as the candidate
for county attorney to be voted for, If
had taken the ticket and voted it
without reading it, 1 would have been
positive that l voted for Mr.. Crawford
because knew Mr.. Kline was working
for him. H.M.V. EARLY,
Subscribed and sworn to before me
this 2Sth day of October, A. D. 1890.
w. S. Anderson,
Clerk Dist. Court.
Very probably Mr.. Kline cast his
vote marked in similar manner, and
If anyone else cast a vote marked by
Mr.. Kline it very probably had Mr..
Crawford's name prominently identi-
fed with aline drawn through it. Of
course the condition of Mr.. Crawford's
name upon the ballot handed Mr..
Early by Mr.. Kline could be explained
upon the theory Of treachery on the
part of Mr.. Kline. But it is more
charitable to attribute it to Mr.. Kline's
Ignorance, rather than political treach-
cry to his instructor.
AS to the afidavits of a part of the
Grant township voters we do not ques-
ton the sincerity of a single one of
them. Each and every one of them
undoubtedly believes that he voted for
Mr.. Crawford. They know they in
tended to; but the result of the count
of the ballots as made by Mr.. Kline,
who was there IN the interest of Mr..
Crawford, shows conclusively that one
or two of them is honestly mistaken.
The charge of Mr.. Crawford that he
has not had fair treatment at the
hands of the central committee is en-
tirely without foundation. The COM
mittee was called, and did meet at the
request of Mr.. Crawford, and he knew
they were in session not over 40 feet
from his Office desk, and he knew they
were there to consider the charges he
had made and and if he had wanted to
submit any evidence he had the oppor-
tunity to do so. Mr.. Crawford COM
plains that the committee did not have
the original afidavits, nor call these
| affidavits before it for examination. The
committee had copies of the affidavits,
and as they were made by Mr.. Craw-
ford, it considered the copies correct,
and acted upon that supposition.
Surely Mr.. Crawford is in no condition
to complain. And as no claim was
made that any fraud was perpetrated
by the5udge and clerk of the election
it would have been useless to call these
voters before the committee to reiter-
ate just what they had stated in their
affidavits.
1t will be observed that Mr. Craw-
ford in his long two column complaint
charges no fraud upon the election
board or anyone else. To do so would
have been to charge Mr.. Kline with
incompetency and fraud which he
could not do as Mr.. Kline was preSum-
ably acting in the interest of Mr..
Crawford. The whole burden of his
complaint is that fifteen voters of
Grant township believe they voted for
him and by mistake of the judges of
the election their votes were not right
ly counted. And he now asks that the
central committee in the face of the
certificate of his own man selected as
judge, and after the convention has
met and placed a ticket in the field,
and a nominee for county attorney
against whom Mr.. Crawford makes no
personal charge whatever to go
behind the returns of his own election
board and upon the theory of the in
fallibility of the fifteen men of Grant
township who believe they voted for
him set aside the entire proceedings of
that convention, and disrupt the entire
republican ticket. We submit, as we
said in the start, that the whole scheme
is that of an infant and indicates the
insiDcerity of the man who would at
tempt to defeat his successful oppo-
nent by such imbecile methods.