The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1898-11-25
CONTESTING LEES ELECTION.

States Attorney Winsor Makes q Full
Statement of His Ideas on the Matter
States Attorney Winsor WAS in Sioux
City the other day and the Sioux City
Journal had an Interesting interview
with him concerning the possible con-
test of Gov. Lees election on account of
the way in which some of the ballots
for him were marked. Mr.. Winsor says.
"In general terms, as l understand
it, this is statement of the case: The
official ballots contained five separate
tickets, arranged in columns, three of
which were those of the democratic,
populist and free silver republican
parties, which had fused in the selec-
tion of state candidates 80 that the
names on all three of the tickets were
exactly the same. Some of the fusion
voters, instead of marking the name in
only single column, put crosses in
front of every name in all three of the
tickets. In some precincts such ballot
was counted as one vote for each of the
fusion nominees. There are those who
think that in some instances each of
such ballots, with names thus marked
in all three of the columns, was counted
as three votes for the fusion candidates
but OF course any such idea is ridicul,
Gus. Where counted at all, they were
counted as only single vote; and we
contend that this was entirely proper
under our statute, and that in cases
where the judges of election threw out
such ballots they should be counted for
our candidates. We would institute
proceedings to compel such counting if
it should appear that there were
enough such ballots to elect any of our
state candidates, bu6 this does not seem
to be the case.
''Of course, what must control in this
contest is the statute. 1t is q matter of
election law enacted by the las. legis-
lature was drawn for the purpose of
permitting fusion nominations-just as
statutesenacted by previous legislatures,
which were republican, had been
drawn to prevent fusion. Under this
new law a name may appear upon
| ballot two or more times for the same
Office in various tickets, but there must
not be any duplication of name for
a different Office than that for which it
was first certified or filed. Tho
previous statute provided that name
must not be duplicated even for the
same Office, but this provision was re-
pealed. Now the provision of the law
in regard to the marking Of q ballot ia
that the elector shall prepare it by
marking q cross or x before the name
of each person for whom he INTENDS to
vote, the party circle at the head of
the various columns having been done
away with. What is there in this to
prevent the elector from putting his
cross or x before such name wherever
it may appear on the ballot9 Nothing
whatever, 30 long as the ballot is
counted AZ only single vote for the
person whose name is thus marked.
Particularly will this be the case
when statute provides, as ours does,
that in canvassing the vote all ballots
or parts OF ballots, which are marked
sufficiently plainly to gather therefrom
the voters intention, shall be counted
30 far as the intention may be indi-
Gated. 1t ia certain that if anything as
to the intention of the voter is to be-
gathered from his marking the name
of candidate two or three times on his
ballot, instead of only once, it is to
emphasize that intention and make it
more clears
$50, upon grounds of either law or
equity, or even as public policy, we con-
tend that the proposition to contest the
election of Gov. Lee, on account of the
way in which SO many of the fusion
voters cast their ballots, is wholly un-
sound. believe that this will be the
opinion of any we'll qualified attorney
who may examine the case"