New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-11-18
FRAUDS IN KENTUCKY.
CHAIRMAN CooMBS TELLS HOW THE
STATE WAS CARRIED FOR
BRYAN AND BECKHAM
rBr TELEGRAPH TO TEE rR1BrsE.I

fBT TELEGRAPH To TIE TRIBUNEl
washington. Nov. 17.-Leslie Coombs, the
chairman OF the Republican State Committee Of
Kentucky who is in this city for few days,
gave an interesting description this afternoon of
the methods by which Kentucky carried
for Bryan and Beckham.
I'VE bad hoped" said Mr. Coornbs. that the
GoebeI Democratic leaders had underestimate
the opposition to them, and that the machine
would break down in places that we would
secure majority that could not be overcome oy
fraud. We found. however. that the defects
displayed last fall had been corrected. Their
system this year to work eight or ten votes
In each of the eighteen hundred precincts in the
State. The fraudulent plurality OF 10000 or
10000 provided in this way was supposed to De
SUFFICIENT to procure Mr.. Beckhams election 1t
thought this could be done without at
tracing such attention would expose the
plan. The desperate efforts to elect Rhea TO
Congress In the IIId District broke over the
bounds they had set for themselves and in the
counties of Warren and Logan fraud was re-
sorted to in the boIdest and most shameless
manner. something like five hundred ballots be-
ing sent up in the ballot boxes in warren
County uncounted on trivial techn4caiities, the
GROUNDS for which had been prepared by the
election officers themselves or by confederates'
while in Logan County. sample of the
method followed, precinct reported only
eighty-seven Republican votes where over one
hundred and forty had been cast.
I'm the IXth District also the boidest frauds
were rife In Greenup County precinct that
gave Pugh a majority of $50 was thrown out by
the County Commissioners because the election
officers had failed to sign the certificate in the
back of the stub book though the returns were
made in regular form in other respects. while
in Eliza bethville precinct, in Fleming County,
which gave Kehoe. the Democratic Congress
candidate majority of sevnty-one, with ex-
sctly the same defect. was counted.
REPUBLICANS NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE.
In the xth District. ii. Breathitt County, they
refused TO allow either Republican challengers
or inspectors in the booths in one precinct. and
returned from that precinct Democratic ma
3ority OF 10 while there are several less than
a hundred Democratic residents Of the precinct
which is normally Republican. In another pre-
cincf IN the same county. upon the attempt of
the Republican inspector TO oversee the count,
the Sheriff took the ballot box and the clerk the
stub books and ran away. meeting subsequently
a mile from the voting place and returning
Democratic majority fifty a hundred in ex-
cess OF the fact. In the With District in Mer-
cer County, they made deputy sheriffs OF the
Democratic election officers and put arms and
badges upon them for the purpose Of intimidat-
ing voters. In Fayette County the delay meth
DDS were employed in two precincts, deprtving
the Republicans Of between four and five hun
dred votes. / have with photograph taken
IF Precinct No. 10. in Lexington, at the close OF
The polls. showing something like two hundred
men in line, who had been deprived Of the right
tn vote
THE Republican party and it's allies in Ken
lucky not discouraged. So long as the
wrongs exist which influencing the po-
tfticaI results in that State long Will we fight
remedy them The better element Of what
vas formerly the Democratic party is heartily
cith in this determination Nearly all that
rs best of the old Confederate element, OF the
clergy. of the bar. Of the professional and of
business interests allied with the Republican
rarty now, matter what their former afil
iation And we VIA <hreRk down one OBJ
struction after another. until Kentucky stands
he peer OF any State in the Union for law, order
and the integrity Of the ballot"