Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-03-11
SNOW HILL. ND. MAR. IL.
JACKSON-SrlITH CONTEST

There never was a IN ethod OF
voting devised whereby an ig-
norant man could vote intelli-
gently. The nearest thing to it
was the law in existence in this
State previous to the introduc-
ton of the so-called Australian
ballot law. Then an ignorant
man could secure a ticket be-
fore or on the day of election
and could take it to some friend
and have him arrange his bal
lot for the parties for whom he
desired to vote.
One would think by reading
the daily papers in which are
printed the comments of Mr..
John G.. Rose on. the result of
the Jackson Smith contest thai
some terrible crime had been
committed in the conduct of
the election in the First Con
gressional District. Mr.. Rose
glibly pirates of the hundreds of
votes that were intended for
jackson, that he did not get.
The reason that he did not get
some of them was because the
voters did not know enough to
mark ballot for anyone, and
the same reason applies to some
of the votes lost by Smith.
Even under the law of eight
years ago, voters entered the
poll rooms, accepted a ballot
from the Judge of election, went
into the the booth, and witho ut
placing a single mark on their
ballot presented it to the judge
at the ballot box. Hundreds
were thrown out because of this.
Hundreds were thrown out be-
cause men voted for too many
men for the same office at the
late election; some put their
crosses in the wrong square,
and others made marks on their
ballots, which, under the law
would be considered distin-
gushing marks, whereby VEN
al voter might let the purchaser
of his vote know that he had de-
livered the goods.
Mr.. Rose would have the peo-
pie of Maryland and the Con-
gress of the United States be-
lieve that hundreds of votes in
tended for Mr.. Jackson were
wrongfully denied him. We
were present at the taking of
testimony in the Court House
in this town by Mr.. Rose and
we know he is a good claimer.
He claimed everything in sight
for Jackson, and the evident in
tent was to swell the number of
ballots to the thousand or more
claimed to have been thrown
out unjustly in the district.
During the count if Mr.. Rose
came across a ballot marked in
the square underneath the
Jackson square he claimed that
the voter intended to vote for
Jackson. In many cases he
claimed votes cast for Elihu E.
jackson were intended for Will
lam HI. Jackson, which is per-
fectly ridiculous, and shows the
weakness of their cause, and
how the Republicans will claim
anything.
So far the investigation has
been one-sided, but now the
Democrats will take their turn,
and it will be seen they have
some good evidence to show
that Mr.. Jackson and his CO.
horts are not saints with little
wings sprouting on them. 1t
will no doubt be shown that it
was necessary to appoint
Deputy Sheriffs in Snow Hill
District at the last election be-
cause of the outspoken threat of
certain Republicans that they
intended to run things here. 1t
will no doubt be brought out
that there was an attempt made
to interfere with the election Of
ficials in the performance of
their duties, and improper pro-
posals were made to them by Re-
publicans high up in the coun-
ellis of the party in this county.
There will certainly be some
testimony that will open the
eyes of the public.