The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-04-03
MAY CONTEST.
Temperance People Indignant About
the Election Saturday.

Last night at the Presbyterian
Church meeting was held and at
tended by many of the active tenn
perance workers of the town, in re-
gard to the election Saturday, in
which they claim many illegal votes
were cast. Some of them had a mis-
apprehension as to the decision made
by Gov. A. B. Fleming on election
day, deciding that any one who had
been an inhabitant of the town TWEEN
ty-four hours and declared his inten-
tion of making this his residence had
a right to vote. Gov. Fleming rem
dered this decision without full legal
information on the subject, but no
one can attach any blame to him, as
the decision was in accordance with
all printed authority.
According to the code to be a voter
a man must be resident of the town
6 months in towns chartered after the
passing of that act. In towns having
charters at the time OF the adoption
of the act no change was made ex-
cept the town avail itself of the law
as laid down in the code. Now, &C
cording to our charter, Gov. Fleming's
decision was all right but the council
about six years ago put on record an
ordinance adopting the provision Of
the code which makes six months
residence the necessary time. This
action, although on the records, had
never been printed and it is not sur
prising that Gov. Fleming was not
acquainted with it.
A prominent temperance worker
when seen this morning said that at
the meeting last night nothing of fnr
portance had been done, but assured us
that the election would be contested.
This gentleman said fraudulent votes
had been cast and it was their desire
to throw these votes out whether
there was one of them or a hundred.
He said they desired to correct this
opinion about "A hours residence ma
king vote legal as under such a rul-
ing as that a company or anything de-
string rights or privileges might bring
in all the votes they pleased. A pub
LEGATION of the ordinance, as it is, will
follow and persons at future elections
will be kept around the polls.
'eThis is no spite work, he contin-
ued, "but simply desire to have good
fair elections, and to get the correct
vote cast. In regard to Saturdays
election We take the ground that lille
gal voting was DONE and we want the
people to know it and just how many
of them were cast. We have already
raised quite sum of money and more
will be Forthcoming and although
there may not be enough illegal votes
to change the result we desire people
to know just what vote was cast, We
are fighting for what is right. II we find
10 votes wrong and did not see that
they were corrected we would not be
good citizens. We hope to find IS
wrong but of course our lawyers will
attend to that. y
Another prominent temperance man
takes more practical view of the
subject. He does not think there are
more than IS illegal votes cast and as
that will not change the result he does
not particularly favor any action be-
ing taken. "Howeyer," he said, 1T
is not SO much the result of this cleo
ton that am looking to as it is to
future elections. | am interested in
throwing all restrictions possible
about the ballot box"
The temperance people desire fair
elections and are determined to see
we get them, a movement by them,
that will receive the hearty support of
every good citizen in Fairmont. Our
voters may look at this matter from
different standpoints but we feel sure
that it is the general desire to abide
by the decision of the majority.-[I In
dex.