St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-16
End of the Much Trumpeted
Election Contests in Ram
sey County.
Compliments Do Not Sub
stantiate a Single Charge I
They Make, 4,
And Their Attorney Fails to
Make Good Even a Legal I
Point.
Judge Cornish Dismisses All
Cases, and So Exit Messrs. -
Mum ct AL. II

l. I'll
| .af
| After Judge Cornish got through with
the election contest cases last evening
there was not enough ammunition left
10 load toy pistol. Freaney, Keller,
Mum and company were apparently
| afraid to face the music in court yeSter-
day, and Attorney Sanborn, who started
into the contest with flushed cheeks,
had incontinently relinquished the fight
when the case of Keller against Kahn
was called yesterday. Attorney ZOll-
man was ON hand, looking somewhat
abashed, Notwithstanding he was
| f1anked OF either side and in front with
a wheelbarrowload of law books; but he
subsequently 'skedaddled" out the back
door without having been able to fire an
effective shot against the solid coat of
mail that surrounded the Democratic
officehoIders. The contested cases were
farce in conception, and they ended in
farce of the most flimsy nature. G..
D., j. D. and T. D. O'Brien appeared
for the Democratic officeholders whose
seats were contested, to wit: r. T..
O'Connor. clerk of the courts, whose
Office was claimed by w. j. Freaney :;
M. f. Kahn, county auditor, whose office
was claimed by Charles E. Keller;
Charles L. Haas, whose Office was
claimed by M. J. Bell; L. d. O'Brien,
| county attorney, whose office was
| claimed by M. d. Mum, and Paul La
vale. county commissioner, who was
| sought to be ousted by w. A. Hellman.
The case Immediately under consid-
Grafton as the test case was Keller VS..
Kahn. Attorney Zollman called Auditor
Kahn to the stand for the purpose of
! proving some OF the points claimed by
| him, but the court sustained an objec-
| ton to his being required to testify
| against himself at the opening of
the case. Mr.. Zolfman then called
to the witness stand e. r. st. John,
who was judge OF election at the
Third precinct of the Fourth ward, and
proceeded to question him. Objection
being made by G. ID. O'Brien, Mr.. Zoll-
man proceeded to state to the court
what he proposed to show by the wit
ness. The statement was made at con-
| siderable length, but the purport
| thereof was that at the Third precinct
of the Fourth ward the ballots were sep
arated into groups of five to ten, placing
| the straight tickets together and COUNT
ing them without calling each name,
| separately. He also proposed to show
| that the ballot boxes had gone "a
Into the Custody 20
| of the city clerk, ard upon this state.
| of facts would ask that the ballot boxes
| be produced in court and the contents
Mr. O'Brien stated that they would
| admit that the ballot boxes had been
| properly turned over to the city clerk
| and had been properly taken care OF,
| but objected to the boxes being produced
! in court or the ballots examined until
| there should be showing to the effect
| that there had been such irregularity in.
| the count as would tend to show that
some of the ballots had been. counted
| for the wrong person or improperly
counted for the respondent g
Mr.. Zollman arose and started upon
an argument. III
Mr.. O'BrieD asked if he desired the
point raised to be applicable to all the
precincts in which similar Irregularities
were charged. -.
Mr.. Zollman admitted that such was
his intention. He also stated that he
thought the witness might be excused,
as he expected the argument to last
some time.
Mr.O'Brien directed an inquiry which
called out response from Mr.. ZoIlman
to the effectthat he hardly expected
the argument to last three weeks. The
attorneys for the defense seemed re-
lieved by the statement, and the wit
nesses and officials whose seats were
contested smiled their satisfaction.
Mr.. Zollman commenced his argu-
| ment, but was interrupted by the court
| by request to read the statute upon
which the contest is based. Mr.. Zoll-
man admitted that there is at present
no statute to base the contest upon in
| the form in which it was begun. but
| claimed right i'm equity to contest the
case.
Judge Cornish stated that he would
sustain the objection unless there was
| a showing made as to irregularity,
| fraud or some error Id counting the
| votes.
| Mr.. Zollman then abandoned his ar
gument. and stated that he proposed to
| show that in the Third precinct of the
| Second ward there were thirty-ive bal
| lots upon which there was either par
| tial cross or other mark against the
name of the first Republican heading
| the ticket which were thrown out and
not counted, and that in the Fourth pre-
cinct Of the Second ward there was
bunch of five tickets counted for. the
| Democratic officials which were exam
| ined by bystander and it was found
| that only three of them were Demo-
| cratic tickets-the other two being for
| the Republican candidates. When one
| of the judges had his attention called
| to the fact he SAID that he
| Proposed to FIX
| the votes all right, and if all the Judges
| did as he would do 1t would be all right
| for the Democrats.
| Judge Cornish said: s'There may be
| something in that point. l Will allow
| you to show that, and il proven will
| allow the ballot boxes of those precincts
| to be opened"
I Mr.. O'Brien said that there would be
no objection to such proof, but stated
| that Mr.. Kain'S plurality was over 300,
| and that if all the votes claimed in those
| TWO precincts were changed as desired,
| or if all votes therein were counted for
| the Republicans, the general result
| would not be changed.
/ After further argument the court de-
| cided that to make such showing in two
| or three precincts would not be suffi-
| cient to entitle the contestants to open
| and inspect all of the ballot boxes, but
| it would be necessary to show either ir-
| regularity, mistake or fraud in each
| precinct desired to be recan-
| vassed. The court stated that
| if all the errors claimed by
| Mr.. Zollman were admitted the general
| result would not be changed, and it be-
| ing admitted by Mr.. Zollman that he
| had no further proof to offer as to the
| recount, the evidence will be excluded
as insufficient to change the result or to-
| show the right to inspect ballot boxes
other than those in tine Third and
| Fourth precincts of the Second ward
and the SIX precincts of the Third
ward.
| On motion of G. D. O'Brien the case
of Keller against Kahn, for auditor, was
| dismissed.
1t was agreed that the evidence In the
other cases, to wit: for clerk of the
courts, register of deeds and county
attorney, was the same as in the case
tried, and the same offer as to proof was
r,,ada in, each naSa and thew uora die