Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-12-18
RECOUNT FAVORS
GEORGE DURB|DCE
Thirteenth District Shows a De.
crease in the Total for
Each Candidate.
IN THIS DEAN SUFFERS MOST.
Two Ballots Not Accounted For in the
Fourteenth Judges Summoned
To Testify.

The result OF the recount Of the votes
In District 10 IN the Dean Burbldge
election contest case, shows a decrease
in the total for each of the four lead
Ing candidates. Dean lost five votes
and Burbidge lost three, thereby max
ing a gain Of two for BurbIdge as be-
tween him and Dean. As the count now
stands Burbidge has a plurality of 10
over Dean instead Of II as was shown
by the official canvass made by the
city council.
The count as made by the court today
of District 10 shows that Dean received
l5l, Wnlle he was credited wan 100 GA
the official canvass. Wood received lgl
instead of 1876; Burbidge received 1863
instead of i12 and Badger received 1853
instead Of 1856. The two Socialist cand-
dates received rs each. There were,
therefore, n fetal Of 10 ballots counted
by the judges, which should have been
thrown out.
The count on District "A was not COM
menced this morning. owing to there
being two ballots missing. The return
OF the judges showed that there were
81 ballots cast, while the poll book
only showed 1859 and thore were only
1857 ballots In the bag. The judges OF
that district will be placed on the stand
this afternoon to testify as to what
disposition was made of the two miss
ing ballots
At the present time a very interest
ing, and what may prove TO be a rath-
err embarrassing political situation IL
being agitated, The way the vote now
stands Burbdge IL high man, Wood Is
mi6nlp 10 10
Dean is clearly disqualified from hold
ing the office OF city councilman by
reason of his being employed by the
Rio Grande Railway company, which
holds valuable franchises from the city.
should Dean pass Wood In this contest
then the latter's office would be vacated
because of Deans disqualification.
In that event 1t would fall upon the
council TO appoint a councilman TO flll
the vacancy. Without Wood. the coun-
ell would stand seven Republicans and
seven Democrats and hence 1t would
probably be unable to agree upon a
man to All the vacancy and the Second
precinct would be thus prevented from
having its fun representation In the
council. Such a condition is not at all
improbable and II is causing consider
able thought and discussion among
the politicians.
After the News" report closed yes-
terday Deputy city Recorder Slmondl
and Miss Ethel Mcdonald, clerk in
the office, We're examined as 10 the re-
ceiVing and Keeping of the bags con-
tanning the ballots of the election.
They both testified that the bags were
received IN good condition snd were
stored In the vault. Upon examining
the bags after being brought to the
court room II was discovered that the
one from District 10 was only partially
sealed and the one from District IL
was badly torn.
Mr.. Slmondi and Miss Mcdonald
stated that the partially sealed con-
dition of the ba3 from the fifteenth
was due to the sealing wax not being
sufficiently moist and also TO It being
kept in the dry vault since II was
turned over to the city recorder. The
tear In the bag from the sixteenth, they
thought, was due to handling It In the
Office, as they had not noticed the tear
until yesterday. They were questioned
by Attorney Bramel as to the possl bill
~ of some one having tempered with
the ballots, but both stated that Il was
impossible for any such work to have
been done, Mr.. Bramel objected to the
ballots IN either Of the two bags being
counted for the reason that their con-
uillOn lllulcHtcu lnhl tneN nad Deen
tampered with. The objection was
overruled.
Attorneys G. r. and f. c. Loofbor-
row then offered the bags from Dis
tricts 10, "A, 49, II, rs, 20, %, 25 and 26
in evidence, and asked that the ballots
be counted, The attorneys for defend
ants objected TO counting the ballots
on the ground that II had not been
shown that any errors were made, and
further, that the city recorder had not
been questioned as TO the safe keep
ing of the ballots while In his posses
sion. The objections We're overrulcd
and the bag from District Is was
opened by Judge Lewis, and the sort
Ing and counting of the same was
commenced. There We're 400 ballots
cast. All of the straight votes OF
each party were placed I'm separate
piles and the scratched votes In two
more distinct piles and all of those
which were marred In any manner ANA
objected to by the attorneys were
placed in another pile. \ ndmber OF
objections We're made TO ballots and
the fifth pile had more than a dozen
ballots when court took a recess until
this morning. There was some dis
pute as TO whether the sheriff on the
county clerk should be the custodian Of
the ballots during the recess OF the
court. II was finally decided to turn
than over IN tho county clerk