The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1896-11-13
the KENT COUNTY OUTRAGE.
The Court VIII Hear the CompIniut Next
NeeN


There will be special session Of the
Superior Court Of Kent county to hear ar
gument on an alternate writ of mandamus
10 show cause why the board Of canvass
should not NEE. again and make a re-
count Of the votes including those pGle1
in the hundred and thrown out by the
board at its sitting. The hearing will be
at Dover on Thursday next, that being the
time set by the court.
The papers necessary for the proper con-
duct Of mandamus were prepared in Do
yer by James Pennewill, Benah Watson.
w. 7. Smithers and Edward Rldgely all
of the Kent county bar. H. H. Ward and
Walter II. Hayes presented the papers to
Chief Justice Lore yesterday afternoon
just before the opening of the afternoon
session of court.
Judges Cullen and Grubb. who sit upon
the bench of the Kent county court with
Chief Justice Lore, Immediately held
session, and it was the unanimous opn-
ion that a special session should be held
and Judge Lore will call a session Of the
court for Thursday at Dover.
The petition covers 113 typewriter
pages. 1t sets forth that the Board of Can
vass, or majority Of it, refused to can
vass the full returns from the county; that
If 1t had done so as required by law the
Union Republican party would have had
majority in the county; that the majority
granted illegal certificates to the Demo-
cratic candidates, the certificates not hav-
ing been signed by all Of the members OF
the Board Of Canvass, nor by the sheriff,
who was neither dead nor absent" The
petition asked that the court issue a rule
to compel the sixteen inspectors to show
cause why they should not reassemble,
count the returns as made and issue certifi-
Gates of election in accordance with the
same.
The length of the petition is due to the
fact that it was necessary to set forth SO
many figures. 1t was first necessary to
make the petition one of the twenty-six
Union Republican candidates against the
sixteen inspectors of election who compose
the Board of Canvass for Kent county and
to name all of them
1t was also necessary to specify that the
Union Republican candidates were citizens
of the county and state, and then to show
that they were qualified to be candidates
for the Offices to which they were elected.
The petition also gives the vote for each
candidate on the whole official ballot in
each of the sixteen districts of the county,
and also the totals for all Of the districts.
All of this took space, and the 1l3 pages are
thus accounted for.
The case is believed to be the first for
which application for special session Of
the Superior Court was made In one county
and called in another county. The law
providing for such special sessions Of court
has been in force for a number of years.
but was never used before.
The present contest has excited con-
siderable attention, as it is a new one. both
so far as regard law and fact Had the
Board of Canvass considered all of the re-
turns and with the sheriff signed one set
of certificates no court could have over
turned its decision or questioned its action.
In this case, however, the board did not
consider the returns from the whole
county; the whole board did not sign the
certificates and neither did the sheriff. The
board has not yet completed its work and
therefore 1t is believed that the court can
reach them. It is not yet known who will
defend the Democrats.