The San Francisco call., 1896-11-10
BREAKING The
BALLOT SEALS
The Election Commission
Begins Its Work of
Recount.
Defeated Candidates Watch and
Hopefully Take Private
Tally.
sIvERAL CLOSE CONTESTS
In Ab-ut Half of the Precincts Counted
the Pap rs Were Found
Unsigned.

Yesterday morning the Election Com
mission tiuttered in through the doors of
the Board of Education chamber and
sadly contemplated pile of big envelopes
that lay on the tables, ornamented with
daubs of red sealing-wax. A number OF
candidates, who apparently had been
found wanting in ballots, ranged them
selves around the room and with pencil
and paper and with o hope that few dis
covered errors would change the COM
plexion of affairs to q less somber hue,
prepared to keep their private tallies. A.
Ruef and Stephen O'Keefe, who may not
be Police Judge this time, watched
closely the totals as the official seals were
broken. Registrar Hinton sat weariiy
back against the wall, with an "Oh-I-
have-sig ighed-to-rest expression in his
attitude.
Mayor Sutro came in early, but the
voice of Harry CreswelI calling off the
figures in a rolling monotone soon ia
tigued him, and the stored white over
coat fioated ghostly away down the dim
corridor. The patriarchal crest of Judge
Cam pbell appeared at the door, and the
sunny smile of the reelected Police mag
istrate frightened the wintry gloom of
the place and made the defeated ones for
get their sadness. The Judge could laugh
first and last, for no official recount can
hope oyerturn his 10000 votes.
The returns of the Thirty-first and
Thirty-ninth Assembly districts, which
are the Twenty-third Senatorial District,
were watched closely Dy the friends OF
Tyrrell, Hall and Welch, as there are
only % ballots between the two first Sena-
torial candidates, and clerical error
made on precinct tally-sheet may turn
defeat into victory. Hall will watch his
precious 1888 ballots, TyrreH will trust
that lucky turn in the tide Will move his
Go up number of numbers and Welch
will pray that his score of 1911 will swell
and swell till seat in the upper legis-
lative house at Sacramento will be his
very own. In the Thirty-fifih Senatorial
District there is difference of So votes,
Dolan having 1898 and Hedemark 1173,
and these returns will not escape consid-
cradle notice on the part of the rival
aspirants to the Senatorial .oga.
The count began at the First Precinct of
the Twenty eighth District and proceeded
swiftly to the Eighth Precinct of the
Thirty-frst About one alf OF the re-
turns were placed back IN their envelopes
on account of clerical errors and the pre-
cinet officers cited TO appear this after
noon and explain why tally-sheets and
poll-lists were sent in unsigned, and why
city and general returns were sealed in
the wrong envelopes.
No material errors were found, and as
yet no changes are on the record, so the
winners may continue to take easy breaths
at this stage of the work.
The First and Second Precincts of the
Twenty-eighth District were not counted,
the Third was all right, the Fourth un-
signed, the Filth, Sixth and Seventh cor
rect. and the Eighth poIl-list had no sig
natures. 1t was the same in the Eleventh,
Fourteenth, Sixteenth and S .venteenth.
In the Twentv-ninth District the Sixth,
Ninth, Tenth, Fourteenth Fifteenth and
Sixteenth precincts were unsigned, and in
the ThirtIeth District the Eighth, Twelfth
and Seventeenth were put aside for the
same cause. In the Thirty-first District
the needed signatures also.
In several of the precincts the industri-
Gus clerks had copied the poll-lists, writ
ing in the names alphabetically after the
voting was finished an unnecessary task.
Often the lists showed that Presidential
electors ofthe set OF nine were short one or
two crosses, proving that the voter had for
gotten to stamp each name, or had grown
weary OF the great task OF putting down
his mark.
The recount will begin again this morn
ing at 6 o'clock, and 1t is thought that
several weeks will pass before the task is
finished. The commission will rapidly
run through the general ticket, but the
real labor will commence when it takes up
the voluminous bundles Of municipal
ballots.