Great Falls weekly tribune., 1896-04-10
SCHOOL ELECTION
The Non Partisan School Board
Ticket Carries Off the HonOrs
OF the Day.
BUT IT WAS A CLOSE CONTEST
c. II. Repath, s. b. Robbins, o. s.
Warden, and B. j. BOOrman
Are Elected Trustees.

was the interest Of the citizens 80 much
aroused over an election of members of
the school board as was the case Satur.
day, judging from the number Of votes
cast. Two years ago, when the Trades
and Labor council nominated ticket,
l,674 votes we're cast. A year ago l,4S4
votes were cast. Yesterday the total
number of votes cast reached 1880, the
high.water mark in school elections.
The polling place at the old South side
school presented the appearance of
polling place at general election,
groups of men peddling tickets to
all comers and teams and buses
rushing to and fro and bringing voters
to the polling place. A noticeable feat
ure was the large number of ladies who
took part in the election, it being roughly
estimated that about one.third of the
votes cast came from the ladies. Another
fact worth mentioning is that, notwith-
standing the intense interest taken in
the election, and the hard work and keen
rivalry for votes between the we'll wishers
OF each of the tickets, everybody was
good natured and there was not even
the beginning of quarrel at the
polls or any ungentlemanly conduct
on the part of any one. There were just
two tickets in the field, one headed
"Citizens' Ticket, Containing the names
of G. II. Repath and j. w. Frizzel for
the three-y year term, and w. l. Hickory
and b. }. Boorman for the two-ycar
term. The other ticket was headed
"People's Partisan Ticket" and
contained the names of G. II. Repath
and S. b. Robbins for the long term,
and G. O. Jar and o. S. Warden for the
short term. A disreputable attempt to
deceive the careless voter was
made by some of the old political
workers." who we're advocating the "cit.
liens ticket" by copying the headline
and type of the other ticket, so as to
make it in outward appearance dupli-
cate Of the opposing ticket, but contain
ing the names on the citizens ticket.
Quite number of these tickets got into
the box and it is probable that some of
the voters were deceived by them. A
circular was also distributed at the polls
denouncing the 'non-partisan" ticket
and bearing on its face tlaring headlines,
referring to "The Enemies of Our Public
School System" and calling on fathers
and mothers to "look to the welfare OF
their children" by voting the citizens
ticket One of these circulars was de-
posted in the ballot box and was counted
as straight vote for the ''citizens'
ticket"
at p. m. the polls were closed
and the work of counting the bal
lots was commenced at once. The
straight tickets were counted first,
and it was found that the
non partisan ticket had $50 straight
votes to its credit, while the opposing
ticket had just S53, showing that on
straight votes the former had just 33
votes the best of it. There were 12G
split tickets yet to be counted, and as it
became known the vote was close the
room filled up with parties interested in
the result, who followed with intense
interest the tally of the split votes.
Quite number of these split
votes had got tho terms of
Office mixed up and voted for
parties for the long term who were run.
ming for the short term or vice versa
| The split votes resulted as follows: