Arizona republican., 1906-12-15
R. E. MINER
 TREASURER The Recount Fleets Him by
 Two Votes
There Will Be a Motion for a Rehearing and Maybe an Appeal.

For the first time in the history of election contests in this county. a re- count resulted yesterday in the rever- sal of the official returns. when R. E.. Miner was declared elected county treasurer over Don C. Rabbit by a plurality of two votes.
 The recount was ended in the middle of the afternoon. It showed that Miner had received 1909 votes and Bab- bitt 17O1. The official returns had giv- en Miner 1895 votes and Babbitt l6g7. After a declaration of the count, Judge Ainsworth. attorney for the contest ant, said that as he would have to leave town last night he would be unable to present the foIm of the findings to At torney Bullard for the contestee. The special term was accordingly continued until next Tuesday, when judgment will be rendered. The judgment will Include an order for the cancellation of the certificate of election which the board of supervisors had given to Bab- bitt and an order for a certificate to Miner.
 A motion for a new trial will be made on behalf of the contestee and if it should be denied an appeal will be probably taken. That. however. is rath- er uncertain. An appeal would be based on the three grounds. that the court erred in deciding that a single oblique line in a square stands for a cross; that the court erred in holding that cross extending beyond the square is not a distinguishing mark. and that 1t was an error for the court 10 admit a ballot which had been spoiled by erasure.
 The recount was resumed in the morning with lead of two for Miner. It was hardly thought that would be overcome in the twenty small precincts remaining. One vote was lost to Miner by a reconsideration of a rule which had been adopted with reference to five disputed ballots. Two of these had been for Rabbit and three for Miner Rabbit gained one in Buckeye precinct and when a recess was taken at noon. a tie existed. There was SO little more counting to be done that there was hardly a probability that 1t would be broken and the prospects were that Rabbit would enter the office by the appointment of the board of supervis- ors.
 But soon after the recount was re- sumed Miner gained a vote in River side precinct and Rabbit lost one in Meridian. The recount gave both can didates twenty-four more votes than had been counted for them by the cleo tion boards. The recount also showed that the boards had shown a disposi- ton to be fair though many of them had been guilty of errors of judgment
 Two curious things came out in the proceedings. One was the persistency with the numeral "2'' figured at almost every juncture. Before the official count, Miner was believed to be two ahead. The official count gave Babbitt a lead of two. Every recess of the court during the progress of the re- count found either Miner or Babbitt two ahead. Another singular thing was that every morning session of the court resulted in gains for Babbltt. but they were invariably swamped in the afternoon sessions by gains for Miner. As is shown both gained, but Miner gained the most Both gained where they expected to lose. and both found nothing where they had expected to make gains.