Omaha daily bee., 1896-03-06
CITY ENGINEER WILL CONTEST.
serves Objections to Counting the
Second Precinct Of the ThIrh Mnrd.

| Second Precinct of the Third ward.
City Engineer s. j. Etnyre has determined
| to continue the contest for his Office. despite
| the fact that the face of the official re-
| turns show that Thomas Tostevin, the re-
| publican candidate, has majority of
| twenty-three. Mr.. Etnyre makes no charges
| OF fraud or any of the usual discrepancies
| usually incident to an election, but bases
| his contention for the office upon the rather
novel theory that the Second precinct of
the Third ward should be thrown out for
| the reason that the registrars did not COM
ply with the law which requires that the
| board of registration shall sit on specified
| days at some public place within each voting
precinct. 1t is the duty of the mayor the
city clerk, and incidentally the members
| of the city council to select the boards Of
registration and locate their offices. The
law contemplates the location of these Of
! fees as nearly as possible in the center
of the precincts where they shall be the
| most easily accessible to the largest num-
| Der OF the voters 1t so happens that
Alderman Brown of the Third ward is a
half owner of drug store at 6l7 South
| Main street. The store is located in the
| Third ward, but it is within the limits Of
| the First precinct. Notwithstanding this
| fact, 1t was selected as the office of the
registrars for the Second precinct, and during
all of the days Of registration the voters of
| the Second precinct were compelled to go into
the First precinct to have their names prop
| erly inscribed on the official lists. With
| TINS statement of facts Etnyre went before
the canvassing board yesterday morning with
| the following notice of contest:
| To the Honorable Mayor and City Clerk
| OF the City of Council Bluffs, Acting as
| Canvassing Board:
Gentlemen: I hereby protest against the
cinct OF the Third ward of the city of
S,ouncil ,oan Bluffs, as returned by the judges of
1886, and for grounds of much protest. saw
that. that no ,, registration was had in said pre-
ton as is by law 'I proVided:s f eas 0i s''o e'e'-
| l further call the attention of this board
t9erIi to the f, fact that the officers mayor and
foa sad xag and I'D the notice Of the
store of Messrs. Brown & Wesner, No. 6i7
nracInet Meh street n II, plnee located in the First
| | therefore ask that the vote of this pre-
earteate eaEineer of election to the oSs 3f city
The official returns from the Second pre-
cinct show that Etnyre received las votes
and Tostevin 1S1. If the votes Of the entire
| precinct Is thrown out Etnyre will have the
benefit of the difference between the two fig
ures, amounting to thirtysix votes, and this
will overcome the twenty-three majority
against him and leave him clean majority
of thirteen.
Mr.. Etnyre says he has personally no desire
to contest the election. The Third ward is
| Mr.. TOstevins home ward and Etnyre be-
lleves he ought to have the benefit of the fine
| complimentary vote that was given him by
| his friends and neighbors
But my party and the men who backed
me-" continued he, "are determined that If
| | am so far beaten upon techn calties it is
our privilege and duty to take advantage of
| other and more important technicalities than
| the awkward marking Of ballots cast for
me. that while clearly indicating the inten-
| tion of the voter to vote for me were thrown
out because there were some Irregularities
=, in the shape of the little crosses placed n
the squares. One of the rejected ballots was
marked with an indell!b!e pencil. The voter
in beginning to mark the squares had fol-
| lowed the usual habit of many people of put
ting his pencil to his lips. 1t was repub-
| lican ballot and the first mark was quite
heavy from the moistened blue pencil. The
| succeeding marks were less distinct, until
the voter came to the engineers office. Then
| he apparently hesitated an instant, and be-
fore making the cross in the democratic
| column opposite my NAME had again mois-
tened his pencil, and then quickly marking
the other squares in the republican COL
umn, folded his ballot In folding the moist
blue pencil made faint offset on the oppo-
site side of the paper. For this reason the
| ballot was thrown out. Another voter had
used one of the cheap hard pencils with
which the booths were supplied, and in max
| ing the cross opposite my name a little bit
of grit had caught the paper and
slightly torn it. This was also de-
| c!ared to be a marked ballot and was ex-
| cluded. But it is not upon these grounds
that the contest will be made, but solely for
the reason that the registration board did no..
comply with the law by making the reg 'stra-
| tion within the precinct. II the law will per-
| nit them to go into the Second precinct it
will permit them to go into some other ward,
| or even out Of the city, and make 1t nearly
impossible for the voters to find them.
| There are some other features about the
| election and count that are little myster-
Gus. There were Ais votes cast that were
| counted for the three candidates for mayor
and only 4,O53 counted for engineer. What
became of the other sixty-fve that were not
| counted for either Mr.. Tosteyin or myself?"
Victor Jennings had not fully made up his
mind as to the question of making contest
for the mayors Office when asked last even
ing. The exclusion Of the Second precinct
but would reduce his vote. He said last night
that he was considering the subject in a
prayerful mood and not listening to the de-
mands OF his party leaders.
| In the meantime the republican candidates
are resting very easy and have no fears Of
losing the fruits OF their victory.
WILL PLEAD GUILTY AT ONCE.
AltmansperEcr Ready to lie Punished Il
| for His PcculatiOns.
Charley Altmansperger, the defaulting
manager for the Seifert & Weise Lumber
company at Minden, has expressed willing