The leader., 1899-01-11
BOGUE CHITTo CONTESTED ELEC-
TION CASES.

TION CASES.
The Circuit Court convened here in
vacation last Thursday, Judge Powell
presiding, to try the contests growing
out of the municipal election in the
village of Bogue Chitto on Dec 13.
The officers of that election made the
following returns:
For mayor, II. d. McInnis %, T. J.
Gill II; for treasurer, J. J. Meyers "a, r.
l.. Williams IL; for aldermen, DIR. V. b.
Martin 81, j. N. Yawn %, C.J. s. Mccoy
%, w. l.. Lewis 13, l. V. Brister 13, only
three to be elected; for marshal, A. NJ,
Hunsucker %, G. w. Turnbough IL,
Samuel Aird /.
In the proceedings before the Cir
cult Court Gill appeared contesting
the election of MeInnis as mayor,
Williams the election of Meyers as
treasurer, G. W. Turnbough the cleo
tion of Hunsucker as marshal, Lewis
the election of Mccoy as alderman and
/. V. Brister the election of Yawn as
alderman.
As is well known to most of our
readers, there are two school factions
In Bogue Chitto, the high school fac
tion and the public school faction, and
the contest grew primarily out of the
sharp antagonism between these fac
tions. The public school faction has
had control of the city administration
for the last two years and this faction
won on the face of the returns at the
December election, and its candidates
were duly installed Jan. I'd.
The principal ground of contest was
that the ballot box had been tampered
with or stuffed by representatives of
the successful faction, and that per-
sons on the other side were arbitrarily
challenged and denied the privilege of
voting.
The plaintiffs were represented by
A. G. McNair and Thos. Brady and the
defendants by Cassidy & Cassidy and
Chrisman e. Brennan, these two firms
being represented at the trial by H.
Cassidy, Jr, and E. F. Brennan re-
spectively. The attorneys for the de-
fense elected ssto try each case sepa-
rately and called for jury, which,
after some delay, was secured
The first case taken up was that of
w. l.. Lewis VS.. c. J. S. Mccoy for al
derman, that being considered by
the plaintiffs as the one on which they
could make the strongest showing
THE LEADER cannot undertake to
give full synopsis of the testimony in
detail. AS indicated above, the main
points sought to be proved by the
plaintiffs was, that the ballot-box had
been stuffed and that persons who
would have voted against the success
full candidates were arbitrarily denied
the privilege of voting by the election
managers. This defendants denied
and introduced witnesses to prove that
| the election was honestly and fairly
conducted, and that the only persons
not allowed to vote were those who
were delinquent for taxes. According
to the official returns, Mccoy received
% votes and Lewis 13-total, 36; neces-
sary to elect, 10. Seventeen persons
were introduced by contestants who
swore they voted for Lewis, which was
met with an effort on the part of the
defendants to show that a portion of
this number were influenced by busi-
ness or other considerations to swear
falsely. All of the official ballots re-
ceived from the printer by the ticket
commissioner were produced in court,
those that were voted being marked in
ink
In the course of the testimony it was
brought out that the defendant Mccoy
was himself not "a qualified elector" at
the time of his election, ON account of
failure to pay on or before the first
day of February last, certain taxes for
which he was liable, and on this show
ing the trial was brought to a sudden
and unexpected end. Judge Powell
ordered the jury to retire, and, ad |
dressing himself to counsel ON both
sides, said he would announce his de-
cision in the case without leaving it to
the jury. He then gave it as the judg- |
ment of the court that Mccoy was
constitutionally disqualified from hold
ing the office to which he was elected, |
by reason of being a delinquent tax
payer: and that Lewis was not entitled |
to the place because it had not been
proved, according to the evidence in
the case, that a majority of the votes
were cast for him; therefore, as far as
these two were concerned, the election
was void and would have TO be held
over. The Judge sustained both posi-
tions by quoting from decisions of the
Supreme Court. Lewis was taxed with
one-half the costs and Mccoy the
other
The court further declared that the
testimony in this trial showed that two
of the contestants (having reference to
| V. B. Brister and G. w. Turnbough)
were in the same attitude as Mccoy
mot being qualified electors at the
time of the election) and were debarred
from holding office for the same rea-
son. He also held that how man
swore he would have voted, who did
not vote at all, cut no figure in the case,
as men had been known to change
their minds when making out their
tickets.
The Annotated Code provides that a
person is not liable to assessment in |
any given year for property acquired
in that year after the first day of Feb
ruary, and this was set up as a plea by |
| en,, M.Cnu n hal haa,,