Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1898-12-08

ficers we~find thatthe aggregate ret for
governor runs 1,545 ahead of the lieuten-
governor, 1,543 ahead of the secretary of
state, 1858 ahead of the auditor, 1876
ahead of the treasurer, HAS ahead Of
the attorney general, 1859 ahead of the
la nd commissioner, 1886 ahead of the
superintendent OF schools and 1882
ahead of the railroad commissioner.
This is a most singular situation.
While we know that two or three thou
sand men did not vote at all for Cover
nor, we find the aggregate vote for gov
ernor running at the very least 1,14S
ahead of the highest aggregate vote for
the next highest Office. There are only
two possible explanations for this, one
that fully four thousand men voted for
governor and no one else, the other eff
teen hundred populists marked their
ballots three times for Mr.. Lee and that
the populist judges having control of the
election boards counted these votes three
times.
Is it at all likely that four thousand
men would vote for the governor and no
one else? 1t hardly seems SO. Some
people have held the theory that many
voters not finding the circle at the head
of the ticket as they had done heretofore
voted for governor in the belief that by so
doing they voted the entire list of names
,,nJar him Tbss tbayr,, MIL LorJlx, ,,ach
The governors name did not appear at
the head of the ticket but third on the
list. Ii a man had attempted TO vote the
entire ticket by voting the first name he
would have voted for Mr.. Knowles or Mr..
Gamble, whose names headed their re-
spectiye tickets. The fact that the vote
for congressman is four thousand less
than the vote for governor shows this
explanation is not sound.
Now let us make another comparison
Taking merely the majorities one would
get the idea that Mr.. Phillips ran from
$500 to 1900 behind his ticket, while
Mr.. Lee ran an equal amount ahead
of his. This is not the case. We find on
comparison that Mr.. Phillips ran only
1904 behind Mr.. Gamble, yet Mr.. Gam
ble's majority is 6,S72; he ran GAL ahead
of Burke, yet Burke's majority is 4,04S.
He ran 1,178 behind Kean, yet Kean's
majority is 3,596;1,711 behind Roddle.
but Roddle's majority is 4,670; LOGS be-
hind Reeves, but Reeves majority is g.
693; 1853 behind Pyle, while Pyle's maj
o rity 4,379; 1881 behind Eastman, while
Eastman's majority is 1926: 1,760 behind
Collins, while Collins majority is 5,211
and 667 behind Smith. while Smiths
majority is 3,571.
Summarizing these figures we find
that the average majority on the Repub-
lican ticket is 4,2S3 and that Phillips ran
on the average 1928 behind the ticket.
We naturally should expect to find
mis- majority then 1866, but we find him
beaten. Lee on the other hand instead
Of run ming OF the average 1928 ahead of
the average vote on the populist ticket.
as we should expect, ran 3,447 ahead
The difference then may well represent
votes which were cast for Mr.. Lee and
not for the entire remainder of the ticket.
1t is evident from these figures that
s evetal thousand votes were counted
for Governor and not for any
one else on the ticket. The figures
ohox, fhat fhaca a~tra x,otao uyara oaet 49,
for Mr.. Phillips, but for Mr.. Lee. Mr..
Phillips light vote can be accounted
for by the blank ballots cast for COVER
nor as indicated above. They represent
the votes of Republicans who refused to
vote for Mr.. Phillips because of the
machine and interest cries but were un-
willing to vote a populist ticket even in
part. II is therefore safe to say that the
extra votes were cast for Mr.. Lee. That
is to say If the returns are reliable three
thousand men in this state voted for Mr..
Lee for governor and for no one else. Is
that likelyY Is 1t reasonable? There
might be here and there a man so much
interested In the success of the governor
that he would vote for him alone. There
might be a few men to whom offices had
been promised who would get a few ex-
ira votes for the governor. But is it
likely that three thousand Of them can
be found In the state? Nor can the ex-
planati on be made that by voting for the
governor the voters believed they were
voting the entire ticket for In that event
they would have crossed Mr.. Knowles
who headed the ticket.
There is M other explanation for the
singular situation. Ii is known that
there were many ballots, some thousand
of them in the state, which were marked
three times for governor, once for Lee as
a populist, once as a democrat and once
as a free silver republican. 1t is possible
that in pop ulist strongholds, where the
populists judges had absolute control.
the three markings were counted on the
one ballot. In some instances this il
known 10 have haan done ~,Iu