The sun., 1905-11-19
TWO-CIRCLE VOTES ARE GOOD
JUSTICE GIEGERICH TBELIEVES.
BUT RESERVES DECISION.
Likely 70 he Counted for both jerome
and Mayor-Fiye Hours Spent Over Oh
Void and Protested Ballots Law
strictly Appiied-very little Change.

Void and Protested Ballots Law
strictly Applied Very little Change.
Justice Giegerich. with the aid Of magni-
flying glass looked at siXty-hve disputed
ballots culled by the lawyers yesterday
from the "void" and protested" ballots In
the First Assembly district. When lie got
through making rulings the Mcclellan side
said that Mcclellan had gained ten votes
over Hearst and the Hearst people said
that Hearst had gained twelve votes over
Mcclellan Nobody seemed to be quite
sure Of his tally. Diainterested observers
failed to see how the ballots in question are
going to change the result Of the election.
The trouble with the talies kept yester-
day ia the fact that il Is impossible appar-
emily, TO tell which ballots returned In the
protested and void" envelope have been
counted already and which have not been
Under the law protested" ballots should
have been counted and ndorsed pro
tested" If they had been marked by the
inspectors az the law prescribes 1t would
I've easy to tell whether the rulings Of the
court were n loss OF n gain but solar most
Of them show no Endorsement
As an instance of how impossible II ia
FOR even the lawyers to keep talle' az a
result Of the work Of the election officials
may be cited the case Of the First Election
district Of the First Assembly district,
The envelope containing the void and
protested" ballots stated that it con-
tained five void" and three protested"
ballots, making eight altogether. Nine
ballots were found inside. Five we're
entirely blank Obviously these we're the
"vod" ballots. but II the remaining four
were protested" ballots there was nothing
written on them to show it. One Of these.
under the court decisions, was bad Nc
Clellan ballot one bad Hearst ballot.
one a good Republican jerome ballot and
the last good Jerome ballot. II fthey have
been counted, Hearst and Mcclellan should
each lose vote. But what is to tell?
In the envelope from the Third district
were four ballots. The inspectors had
written on the envelope, "One void and
three protested" There was no ndorse-
ment on any Of the ballots. One ballot Of
the four was declared to be valid, 1t was
Hearst ballot. II this was the void ballot
il wasn't counted whereas it should have
been. II protested" did the inspectors
count it or not? Count the votes all over
again" say the Hearst people, but the
Tammany people don't seem to think the
courts will allow that to be done as part of
the canvass. They believe that when
the inspectors are called before the Board
of Canvassers they will be able to complete
their returns properly.
Both sides presented briefs to Justice
GeEerich yesterday morning on the pro-
tested and void ballots in question. The
Mcclellan and Tammany lawyers asked
that the law be applied strictly. The Hearst
lawyers asked for a liberal construction.
Justice Giegerich decided on a strict one.
How strict this is is exemplifed by the case
of q ballot in the Fourteenth district. TO
/ -
straight Tammany ballot. But the eagle
eyes of the Hearst contingent thought
there was something wrong with 1t, and 80
had somebody in the polling place thought.
Justice Giegerich took it and put it under
his magnifying glass. He discovered, a
pencil mark the size of pinhead outside
the Democratic circle and another mark
Of the same size in the Socialist column.
He said it was void" ballot
Justice Ciiegerch decided in another case
that one line of cross had been marked
over in order to shade it heavily and that
the ballot was void. In another case whore
double line figured in cross he ruled
the same way. Where the double line was
made by different stroke of the pencil,
and not by broken lead, the ballot was
void, he said. On the other hand, he held
that where the legs ran over the circum-
ference of the circle the ballot was not
void, unless the intersection point, was
outside. Tammany had protested all suoh
ballots. Fancy strokes at the end OF the
cross marks invalidate ballot 80 does
curved line GENERALLY, the point being
that such marks could be used to identify
a ballot.
Justice Giegerich indicated that it was
his opinion that the cross in the jerome
circle in addition To a cross in party circle
did not invalidate ballot, but he reserved
his decision on this question until Monday
morning. Early in the proceedings the
Tammany side withdrew all objections to
counting these ballots for the party can
didates except District Attorney, but did
not concede that they were good Jerome
votes The first ballot Of this kind reached
was a Democratic-Jerome ballot, and Justice
Giegerch said when he examined 1t that
he believed it was valid ballot for Jerome.
Lewis l.. Delafeld, for Mr.. Jerome, whose
vote will be perceptibly increased by such
ballots, argued that the intent OF the voter
governed where the law contained no pro-
hibition against certain marking.
There is little doubt that all OF these votes
will be counted both for mayor and for
Jerome.
il took five hours to go over the sixty-fve
ballots, because of the time that was spent
looking through magnifying glasses and
arguing as to whether marks were the re-
suits OF impert ections in the paper or mis-
takes Of the printers But the lawyers think
they will go ahead faster after this with the
rulings made yesterday to guide them.
They are to get together and start on the
Second district at $50 Monday morning,
These cases always break about even.'
eaid Mr.. Knox, chairman Of the Tammany
Hall law committee, after the proceedings
yesterday, "and you will find this will result
in the same manner"
The Heorst lawyers sa id that the First As
sembly district was not a fair district,
because the janitors downtown were pretty
intelligent men," "It'll be different, they
said, when we get to the Sixth, Eighth and
Sixteenth"
Clarence j. Shearn, Mr.. Hearst's counsel,
said that the results in votes were small,
compared to the demonstration that had
been made of the incapacity of the election
officials.
1T will simply fortify our position already
made in regard to the tally sheets, namely,
that the ballot boxes must be opened"
he said Mr.. Shearn said that the first ap-
plication for an order to open ballot box
would be made on Monday to Judge in
this county.
BOY WITH SIDEWHEEL Jag.
u.tt