The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-02-21
EIGHTEENTH WARD
RETURNS RECEIVED
Their Correctness Practically Unchal.
Ienged Said Judge Guuster.
CENsURED THE ELECTION BOARD
An Election officer Has No Right to
Allow HimseItto BE Overcome by
Intoxicating Liquors, Said the
Judge - lie Believes That Many
Illegal Votes Were Cast--Oficial
Footings of the Vote Cast in scran-
ton Last Tuesday.

With all it's faults, it would appear,
the Eighteenth ward election count was
at least correct enough on its face to
receive the official sanction of the
court.
When the ballot box was brought in
by Commissioners T. p. Duffy and r..
j. Murray, Saturday morning, court
directed that it be opened and its con-
tents removed for inspection. The con-
dition of the contents bore out the
statements as to the befuddled condi-
ton of the board. A rummage through
the mass of folded and unfolded bal
lots brought forth the missing list of
voters and the three additional tally
sheets used to record the O'Boyle-
Hoban vote. Clerk Burns identified two
of these sheets as the ones he had used
in connection with the one that came
over with the sealed returns.
Clerk Hosie recognized the third as
the one on which he carried forward
his "tallies," running them out to the
margin and then finishing the score on
the back. Hosie's two sheets, Burns
three and the slightly disfgured but
still fairly presentable open return
sheet were found to coincide exactly
as to final results, so Judge Gunster
accepted them and directed the COM
putting board to certify them. In doing
this, Judge Gunster was constrained to
remark:
JUDGE GUNSTER'S REMARKS.
There is no doubt but that the re-
turns are irregular and that the officers
grossly misbehaved themselves there on
election day. An election officer has no
right to allow himself to be overcome by
Intoxicating liquors. The evdepce shows
that some of the board were intoxicated
and did not know what they were do
ing. The others were not and, of course,
knew what they were about. Had they
kept the tally correctly there would be
no room for argument, but they did not.
l believe, as they all swore, that three
sheets were used to keep the tally on and
that the footing of the figures on the
three sheets give the amount of the total
vote. There is no doubt that there were
many illegal votes cast, but that L can
not go into at this time; it is only prop
er for a contest The correctness of the
return is practically unchallenged. 1 di-
rect the clerks to certify them
That there were illegal votes cast is
evident from the fact that while 345
votes are recorded as having been cast
only 12O names We're checked off on the
registry list Another evidence of il
legal voting was found in the fact
that out of the As affidavits that ac-
companied the returns not one of them
was found to be in compliance with
the law. There is every likelihood
that there will be a contest
One of the features of the contents
of the ballot box was the officers oaths
of office which were marked "Oath of
| office of the Democratic party of the
election district of the Eighteenth
ward"
Below is the official footing ccmplet-
ed Saturday of the vote cast in last
Tuesdays election. 1t does not differ
materially from the results which
were shown by the open returns: