Bisbee daily review., 1907-01-12
JUDGE DOAN'S OPINION IN
 THE DOUGLAS CONTEST CASE

The following are the words o1 Judge Doan in rendering his decision yesterday in the Rice-Hardiker cleo ton contest case. concerning evidence submitted that A. c. Lockwood stood near the ballot box during the count, and concerning the finding of ballots Joy c. 4. Overlook in the stove of the justice office.
 Tt Is not just clear to me in regard to one feature of the case. and that is that the bystanders were up by the ballot box, l think the only evidence in support of that was that one man. Mir. i lockwood, stood right near the balloF box part of the time, and part of the time leaned over it. but l un- de3slood that he was there as the representative of one of the political parties as a watcher"
 Nj. watson-"I don't think that fact was shown"
 The Crurt-"I am not clear whether tireTc was ;uy evidence of that fact CT not whether he was a rank cut slder O. one of the watchers"
 NIr W.Uson-"9oungD Dayis was the democrat. Miller was the socialist. a.d Ii. r. Stone was the republican"
 Tie C:, And NJ Lockwood was snpplv 9 lookeroE."
 A5r. Watsou-"One witness said he supposed he was watcher"
 . The Court Then, that is a feature Os the case that would merit more SC gere criticism. but that was after the polls had been closed, and itwas dur ing the counting of the ballots. and uuleBs. there was an opportunity for fraud. or for an injury to the interests of one Of these parties. the electors Of that precinct oueht not to be de priyed OE their rights tO elect. the off, cers they desired, or Co have taken from them their right 10 express their preferenceh by the ballot becauss Of that, unless there was sufficient in it to endauEer the correct counting of the ballots that were there. and the undisEuted evidence was that while this man Lockwood. who, we may say, had no business there. edged up to the ballot box and stood by it for hours, and leaned over it at different times, yet the ballot box was at all times not cnly under the watchful su- pervision of the judges of the elec- ton, and in sight of the watchers of the different political parties. who were there for the purpose of watch ing it, and some of whom were par ticuiarly watching this man, but it was in full view Of the public; that is, the crowd of outsiders who were standing about there, from half doz- en to fifty of them during all the time, and they were those nearest to it, within six or eight feet of the bal lot box, and the ballot box was be- tween them and LockwoOd's body. Tf he had been standing between the public and the box, there might have been some opportunity to tamper with it. but it does not occur, from my view of it, that he had any opportuni- ty to abstract ballots from the box, or put others in the box without an al- most absolute certainty of being de- tected by some one in doing it, and the fact that the tally count of the ballots agreed with the roll-list would indicate that the officers of the cleo ton did get from the ballet box, the ballots that were actually cast and placed therein"
 NIT. Watson-"That is one thing that a man tampering with the box would be very careful about, to make them come out correctly"
 The Court-"Certainly, he would be careful. but l don't think that how ever adept he might have been, that there was an opportunity unGer these for any tampering with the ballots as they were taken, from the box.
 The fact of their being taken out by the handful and laid on the table instead of being taken out one by one is Q technical matter, and don't feel that 1t is entitled to any very ser ious consideration in the light of the evidence relative to the manner in which the counting was done as was detailed by the officers in the court. The testimony of nearly all of the of ficers of the election in this case es- tablished, and they impressed me with the belief that they had honestly and conscientiously discharged the duties of the office so far as they knew how to do it. They did make some mistakes, and they were care less and they bIundered-
 The Ballots in the Stove
 ''The last episode is only worthy of consideration because of its chaJac- ter. That is something that occurred after the entire count, after the cleo ton was held on the 9th, and the counting was had on the night of the 9th and 7th and on the day of the 7th along in the evening, and it was con