The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-11-16
FERNANDEZ
DROPS II.
Election Contest Ends
Abruptly in Favor
of Adams.

Abraham Fernandez, by his counsel,
! Mr.. Edings, abandoned his contest for
! the seat of Supervisor at Large for
Oahu in the Supreme Court yesterday
| afternoon. Under rulings of the court
| on points raised in the hearing. Fer
| nandez gained but one vote out of 1856
ballots examined The ballots from
four precincts had been brought under
scrutiny. There was therefore little
use in carrying the contest any further
hence the petitioner gave it up.
Sacks of county election returns were
strewed upon the floor OF the Supreme
Court room, and packages of ballots
taken from certain sacks Uttered the
attorneys tables. The occasion was the
contest of Abraham Fernandez against
| E. r. Adams for the seat of Supervisor
at Large in the Board of Supervisors
of the County of Oahu. Chief Justice
| Frear and Associate Justices Hartwell
| and Wilder sat, constituting the regu-
| lar bench. w. 5. Edings appeared for
petitioner, and E. A. Douthitt and T.
| w. Milverton, County and Deputy
| County Attorney, respectively, for re-
| spondent. The parties We're also pres
| enI in person.
| Mr. Edings asked for a continuance,
| saying it was Mr.. Ashford's case. Mr..
! Ashford was engaged in another court
| and he (Mr. Edings) was unfamiliar
with the matter AS it was Mr.. Ash
| ford who had secured the setting of the
trial for that day, he was sent for and
| the court deciding that the trial should
| proceed, induced Mr.. Edings to take
| charge of petitioners case.
G. r. auckland, chief clerk of the
Secretary's office. and Bernard H. Kele-
kolio, junior clerk, came in with the
| impedimenta. Mr.. Buckland's evidence
| established the genuineness of the eX-
| hibits, after which Clerk George Lucas
with a knife dissected them as required.
| The first sack opened was that of
| the first precinct, fourth district, which
| contained SO rejected ballots. Sixteen
| of these Were marked for Fernandez,
| five for Adams and twelve for both or
| neither, in some of the aforementioned
| cases four district supervisors being
| voted for when the choice was limited
! to three.
| Mr. Edings contended that ''all the
cases in the books held that where the
voters intention was plain the ballot
was valid excepting the portion that
| was wrongly marked.
| Mr. Douthitt argued that wrong
marking of the ballot paper in any
| part constituted means of Identification,
| therefore made the whole ballot void.
The court reserved it's ruling and took
up the individual ballots for inspection
| On resuming the sitting after the noon
| recess the court ruled that the ballots
must be considered as a whole and
| that an error in any portion invalidated
| the whole It held that fifteen of the
votes for Fernandez We're properly and
one improperly rejected, out of the
votes cast in the precinct thus far in
vestigated.
The ballots of the tenth. eleventh and
ninth precincts of the fifth district were
next examined. These We're likely to be
among the most favorable of all the
precincts for Fernandez but they did
not yield another vote for him which
the court would hold to have been i'm
properly rejected.
Altogether 1876 rejected votes for Fer
nandez were submitted without any but
the single one already mentioned being
found which should have been counted
for him.
When the fourth sack had been OPEN
eCt and Mr.. E0lrSS submitted specimens
of the rejected ballots taken therefrom,
the Chief Justice after consultation
ruled that the ballots We're properly
rejected
Mr. Edings said he was willing to go
ahead with the scrutiny, but did not
wish unnecessarily to consume the time
of the court.
There was another short consulta-
ton. when the Chief Justice said
1.-The court sees no reason, Mr.. Ed
ings, why you should not move for a
discontinuance."
Mr.. Edings at once made a motion
for leave to discontinue the case, which
the court promptly granted.
Among the ballots exposed to view in
the investigation were few obviously
marked improperly, but which never
theless We're found in the parcels of
counted ballots. AS these Illegal speci-
ments were not in the case at bar, they
remain mere discovered curiosites I'M
til the entire mass of ballots is destroy
ed There is no other contest of the
county election in Oahu pending, it is
too late to institute another and, more
over, nothing appeared in the contest
just closed which would give color to a
conjecture that any county officer fail
ed to receive a majority of all the legal
votes cast for his particular office