Bisbee daily review., 1907-01-12

, claded some time before midnight, say 10 or Il o'clock on the 7th The ballots, the muuiatod ballots. that were found on the Sth Tn the stove shows that there nas been something dishonorable and dishonest in the ltransaction. It does not attach itself 10 the action of the election board in my judgment, after looking at it care fully 1 would like to know more about 1t. If it was done by any of the election board, 1t was a crime as well as a disreputable and dishonest act. l : however, to attach it to any of the cleo ton board, would have to indict them, not only for rascality and dishonesty, but also with want of good common sense. and while they have been negll- gent in some of their duties 1 don't think we could charge them with be- ing exceptionally dull or stupid or foolish The only manner in which that could be connected with this transaction is that if these were bal lots that had been surreptitiously talk en out of the box by some one con nected with the election board and af- forwards put in the stove Now, fl any person had succeeded in getting these ballots out of the box, they would have had to secure them some place about their clothes, when the board went iE there that night be- cause it was too cold to stay in the .cther room, and there was a fire in the stove, and if they had put them lin the stove then they would have talk en fire and bumsd, and if any person had gotten them out of the ballot box and put them in their clothes after the board moved out of that room, they certainly would have had better sense than to puJ them in a stove where the fire was out. but rather would have taken them with them and gone away from that place and quiet ly destroyed them. So the inference I deduct from that circumstance, and think forty-nine out of fifty would de duct. was that these ballots were placed there on the night cf the 7ih 1T the morning of the Sth by some
 sgTECn for dishonGrabIe motives and that AIr. OveriJUx, as suggested Dy counsel, was imposed on and worKe0 to s0ma extent by the act If those ballots had been found there by any person under circumstances that would attach suspicion to the board the chances are that the person that found them would not be ashamed or afraid to disclose his identity. AnOny- nous letters and anOnym0uEe calls bear the eGrmarks of CowarIice, and show fraud upon their face. If 1, or any good citizen, had found some mu- tilated ballots that had probably been taken from the ballot box and hid away in a stove or a hiding place, we would probably have told some public
 spirited man like Mir. Overlook, or taken some officer of the law to them and pointed them out and done it pub icly. and the fact that some person called him over the phone, and told him if he would look around he would find something of interest, coupled with the other fact that a couple of pads, either two pads or fifty or one pad of hundred of the blank ballots had been left there on the 7th so that the public had full access to them, it would indicate that every opportunity had been offered for some irresponsi- ble or disreputable person to do a thing of that kind"
 MT. Watson-"If the election board had done their duty in taking care of those supplies that opportunity would not have offered"
 The Court-"That is true, but that is an after requirement of the cleo tiOn board, after the election had been determined. l am not eXcusing the election board, and another thing which don't enter into this oose per haps, and that iS the action of the election board in sending up both copies of the poll list here, so that dissatisfied person or a contestant was deprived of the means of obtain ing knowledge to which he was en- titled, but that is something that does not enter into this case. This would be something to take into considera- tiOn in passing upon the action of the board in any proceeding against any of them for malfeasance or mal-cOn- duct in office, but would not work for the benefit o. detriment of either Of the parties in a case like this, who were contesting the election on the ground of the validity of the votes that were cast.
 50 that, looking at it in that light, I don't see that there is sufficient iT- regularity shown to warrant me in throwing out the entire vote of pre- cinct No. 4, and depriving the citizens there of the opportunity of expressing their preference, or in taking from the different candidates for whom votes were cast, the benefit of the votes that were cast for them.
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