The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-01-09
AN ERROR IN THE COUNT.

AN ERROR In The COUNT.
CANDIDA Is EDITED WITH
MORE THAN THE TOTAL VOTE -
Three Thousand One Hundred and
Eighty-four Votes Cast at Thurs
days Election and Four Candidates
Overrun the Count The Treasurer
ship Not Affected by the Error
Some of the Ways the Mistake is
Accounted For.
Supt. Patterson complied with the re-
quirements of tho state law with regard TO
elections yesterday morning by signing.
sealing aud delivering 20 the ordinary and
clerk Of the superior court each one of the
tally sheets containing the consolidated re-
turns of the election for county officers.
and by forwarding a third copy to the
secretary OF state.
A mistake was discovered in the returns
as announced Wednesday night. Three
thousand one hundred and eighty-four votes
were cast in the election. as was found by
adding up the numbers OF each Of the six
tally sheets. The consolidated vote showed
several of the candidates who had no oppo-
number of votas cast.
The consolidated returns were as follows:
sHERFF
John l. honan....-......ss. ..............5, 1874
CLERK SUPERIOR COURT.
James X. P. Carr. ,223
RECEIVER TAX RETURNS.
John r. Dillon. ,695
TAX COLLECTOR.
James ]. MCGOWAN. ........,,.......3.2i0
TREASURER.
Waring Russell ............. ......... f,7f7
Charles II. Olmstead. .... ................ ], 466
SURVEYOR.
John r. Tebeau. 80. 9, 30
CORONER.
William ID. Dixon 3, 167
1t will be seen that Sheriff Roman, Clerk
Carr, Tax Collector McGowan and County
Surveyor Tebeau each received greater
number than the total vote cast.
THE MISTAKE NOT DIscovERED.
In the hurry Of counting out the vote late
Wednesday night this discrepancy was not
noticed. Supt Patterson's attention was
called TO IL yesterday morning. On exami-
nation he found that Box had given each
Of the candidates having no opposi-
ton more than the total vote OF
the Box, the vote reported giving Carr
693, Roman 500, Dillon $50, Dixon $50, Nc
ballots cast at Box 4. The vote for treas
urer at this box was: Russell 1913, Olmstead
264. The vote for the tWocandidates added
together gives SAT, the exact vote of the box,
80 there did not appear TO be any mistake
made in the return OF the vote for treas
urer.
Supt. Patterson said he could not under
stand how the mistake occurred, and seat
for y. l.. LaZaron and p. J, OConnor, who
mn af A he wa hat
Russell mau and the second an Olmstead
man, left the matter to their decision. They
could not remember how the mistake oc-
CURED, but were satisfied that IL resulted
from counting one batch of tickets, prob
ably tue split tickets, twice for the cendi.
dates mentioned.
LAID TO THE TALLY SHEET KEEPERS.
AS the tally sheet keeper who was lead
ing had found some difficulty in taking the
votes correctly as they were Gale d, they
concluded the mistake must have been made
by the tally sheet keepers. AS there was nc
mistake in the vote for treasurer in that
box they concluded not to attempt to cor
| rect the other mistakes, as the managers
had all signed the tally sheets and gone
home, and 1T might cause an endless amount
| of trouble to attempt to correct the mistake.
so the returns as published were allowed to
stand. Several popular candidates can now
congratulate themselves on receiving more
| votes than were actually cast.
Justice Sam Reynolds, who was the third
manager at Box 4, and who called the re-
turns from that box to the tally -sheet keep
| ers, explained the mistake. He said it
was the fault Of the tally-sheet keepers.
The votes in this box were divided into
four patches, viz, 100 straight tickets for
| Olmstead, l54 straight tickets for Olmstead
293 votes for Russell, OF which 90 were split
and were called separately.
| JUSTICE REYNOLDS STATEMENT.
when called a9S votes for Russell, +" sale
! Justice Reynolds, 1.-THE tally-sheet keepers
ran 293 straight through the list, when
| they should have only given tue othel
candidates 200, and then W en- l called thu
| split ticket separately, they put them down
again. This gave 90 votes too many Il
several of the candidates l said at the time
that they were not taking them correctly.
This would mean a loss Of 90 votes to the
candidates whose vote is in exces, Of the
| total ballot.
Two Of the tally sheet keepers were seen
and both of them were positive that they
had taken the vote exactly as it was called
| Supt Pat erson also kept tally Of the vott
| by boxes as it was called, and Is positive
that the vote was called as recorded. His
notes oorresponded exactly with the tally
sheet.
| THE TALLY SHEET RECORD.
AS the record stands on the tally sheet there
| were 254 straight Olmstead tickets in Box 4
| 293 straight Russell tickets and a number
of split tickets, with no vote for treasurer,
which gave the other candidates the follow
ing vote: Carr rs, Roman 46, Dillon6, Dixon
AZ, McGowan AS, Tebeau 81.
Several minor mistakes of a few votes
were apparent in some OF the other boxes
| They could easily have been made
in the hurry Of making up the returns
SO late at night Boxes and 8 were the
only ones at which the managers called on
the votes in lots instead of consolidating
the whole vote heforereporting it.
A peculiar circumstance of the vote Of
Box was that Of 1919 straight OlmsteaC
tickets Capt. John r. Dillon received ~
votes, while of 16S straight Russell ticket
he did not receive a vote. There we're
split Russell tickets, of which Capt. Dillol
received votes, making only votes TO
Capt. Dillon out of It's Russell tickets.