The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-11-02
MORE FISHER reform
All the Palmer and Buckner
Ballots Ruined by a
Grossly Careless
Error.
Polls Open Tomorrow 6 A. M.
Polls Close - P. M.

On Friday County Clerk Fisher de-
/ livered to the Palmer and Buckner County
Committee II 300 of their ballots for which
the National Democrats paid the clerk
These ballots contained two errors. the
! name of Nelson ]. H. Edge, the Presi-
Nelson ]. H. Page, and the name of
Henry G. Hermann, the candidate for
Coroner, is spelled with only one r.
That however, the Court has declared
is not a consequential error. A promi-
nent lawyer, on the other hand said this
morning that the misspelling of Mr.
Edges name made the ticket marked
ballot under the law, which the officers
would be obliged to throw out
By some blunder the Record Grouse
crowd accepted the ballots and without
discovering the errors sent them out
the tickets and circulars sent out by the
Republicans, which were delivered Satur-
day night and yesterday morning This
morning several voters who had discover
ed the errors came to the Palmer and
Buckner headquarters to point them out
Mr.. Edward Gritten Clerk Fishers as
sistant also discovered the. errors this
morning and when he did the Office of the
County Clerk was thrown into panic
Mr.. Fisher seized his hat and rushed off
to the Office of the Hoboken Views"
where Gustavus seide was printing the
tickets by a private arrangement with
Clerk Fisher
Mr.. Edge was seen this morning by
reporter for 'The Jersey City News"
He said he did mot suppose that the err
rors were made through any political
trick, nor for the purpose of taking votes
from him, but it was a seandalous state
of affairs that sucha gross error should
occur 1t might be thought a matter of
small consequence, as it happened to the
Palmer and Buckner. ticket, which had
little chance of being elected, but it was
just as liable to happen to any other
ticket. It showed, Mr. Edge said. some
shameful laxity in the management of
the County Clerks office 1t had hap
pened SO late that there was no time
to send out pastors, and he would have
to depend upon newspapers to correct
the error. An attempt to see Mr. Fisher
resulted in finding that he was out. Mr..
Gritten said that he had gone to the
Hoboken News office to look after the
matter. Mr.. Gritten said he believed
that he was the first one to discover the
error, and the office would guarantee that
the correct ballots would be in all the
booths tomorrow. The reporter asked him
if he did not think that the errors were
serious thing. He said he did, and he
was sorry that it had happened, but he
could not see how it could be remedied
now. He was then asked if the Palmer
and Buckner men would have to pay
for the erroneous ballots That, Mr..
subsequent consideration. To the ques-
ton whether the work was submitted
to competition, he replied that it was
not. He said that 100000 tickets at 81
per thousand We're being printed.
Then he was asked if the law did not
require all work involving the expendi-
ture of $500 to be done by contract. He
replied that the law exempted the
printing of tho ballots from that
provision because the County Clerk was
personally responsible for them
IF the County Clerk then is personally
responsible Mr. Gritten was asked,
''how then can there be any question
whether the Palmer and Buckner men
will have to pay for the spoiled bailots?o
No demand has yet been made on the
County Clerk for the money" was Mr..
Gritten's reply.
The section of the Election law which
relates 10 the use of pastors or writing
names on the tickets is as follows
Section 40. That nothing in this act
contained shall prevent any voter from
erasing from his ballot any name or
names thereon printed or from writing
or pasting thereon the name or names
OF any person or persons for whom he
desires to vote for any office; the ink
or lead pencil to be used in writing any
name or names upon the ballots shall
be black in color, and the use of any
other colored ink or pencil shall invali-
date the entire ballot; and all pasters
used shall be printed on white paper
only, and pastors printed on other than
white paper shall inyalidate the entire
ballot; the ballots shall be printed and
IN possession of the county or municipal
clerk at least five days before the election
and subject to inspection and examina-
ton by the candidates and their agents.
II any mistake is discovered it shall be
the duty Of the county or municipal
clerk to correct the same without deiay
by causing new ballots to be immediately
printed III place Of those found to be
inaccurate or incomplete. and those found
to be inaccurate or incomplete shall be
immediately destroyed.
MASS MEETINGS ON THE HEIGHTS
The silver men Of the Heights ON Sat
urday night held two mass meetings.
One of them was in Prasser,s Hall and
the other in the Avenue House
The Prasser Hall meeting was held un-