Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-07
RECOUNT BILL FIGHT
Mcclellan Sends Personal Pro-
test to Legislators.
CALLS MEASURE A JUGGLE
Asks New York Senate and Assembly
to Sustain Veto.
! HE FEARS DEFECTIVE BALLOTS
Says He Is Not Permitted by the Bill
to Obtain a Fair Recanvass
| of Hearst Districts.
CALLS MEASURE A JUGGLE
HE FEARS DEFECTIVE BALLOTS

| NEW YORK. June 7-Mayor Mcclellan
| sent a personal appeal yesterday to the
| members of the senate and assembly to
sustain the veto of the recount bill, which
| veto they will receive today from Acting
Mayor MCGOWAN. He protests that the
| bill is dishonest and unfair because II per-
| mits w. R. Hearst to select 1or attack
as few or as many as he likes OF the dis-
tricts which give Mcclellan the largest ma
| ioritles and in 500 such districts, the mayor
saws, it might be that ! to 10 per cent of
the $50. 900 ballots would be found to be now
technically defective. having, for instance,
been marked by the inspectors and poll
clerks in checking up the count. In dis
tricts that went to l for Mcclellan there
would be on the average two delectiFe Nc
Clellan votes to one defective Hearst pal
lot and by sticking to such districts the
Mcclellan plurality might be seriously
threatened If not overcome. On his part the
mayor says he is forbidden to ask for a
recanyass of the other districts should such
a result be attained in those selected py
Hearst. He puts it this way:
Recanvass and Bonds.
II say am denied this right because the
bill provides that an applicant must pre-
sent his petition to the court within twenty
DAYS after the passage of the act and at the
same time must file a bond for all costs as
a guarantee that the result of the election
will be changed. In other words, unless
apply for a recanvass and give bond that
/ will not only lose my office but Will also
| pay all the costs and expenses OF !he III
CATION If l do not l cannot have a full re-
| canvass of the vote. How can l act upon
| Il Q assumption that l will lose my once
Certainly l do not expect to do SO. There
| fore the bill prevents me from taxing any
action to protect my rights. 1 cannot con-
ceIye of more cunningly contrlved scheme
| to prevent what the contestant contends
| that he wants, namely recanvass OF all
the votes.
The mayor calls the bill jugglery and a
deliberate attempt to throw the whole mat
ter into new and utter confusion ana en-
courage endless litigation He asks If this
is the fair count recommended by the gov
ernor. He says that the ballot boxes opened
in the preliminary Hearst proceedings in
1903 had shown only seventeen votes gained
for Hearst When Hearst dropped the pro-
ceedings in which simple and impartial
recount might have been obtained and ap-
piled to the courts to order a general re-
opening of the boxes, then the mayor OPP
posed. He says
Reasons Against Recount.
"Such a recanvass as he then sought and
was denied by the courts would have occu-
pied SO much time that no one could fairly
say when 1t would end. In the meantime
there would have been chaos in the city
government. The board of elections had
been enjoined by the courts from issuing a
| certificate to me until the termination OF the
| contest 1t would have been impossible to
| have planned a single public improvement
or to have sold a city bond. 1t would have
been impossible to persuade competent Of
ficials to accept office under the admlnlStra-
ton, and 1t would have been impossible to
remove those who failed. Was 1t my duty
to acquiesce in such condition? 1t seems
to me that l should have been false to my
oath Of office If 1 had done so. In the po-
sition that 1 took 1 was sustained by the
court of appeals, which said that Mr..
Hearst's remedy rested in quo warranto
proceedings. In that litigation 10000 ballots
had been actually recanvassed by the
courts, l. 200 more had been recounted, with
the result that my plurality finally stood
3.474, according to Mr.. Hearst's own figures,
or about the same that was credited to me
by the Associated Press Immediately after
the election"
He says that the bill does not permit Of
fering evidence that the ballots are not
now in the condition they were in when
| first counted; that the mayor is personally
burdened with an enormous and prohibitive
| cost in defending his rights. while his op-
ponent's wealth is unlimited.
Mcclellan and Duty.
| He continues:
My duty has been clear to me from the
| beginning. To allow every opportunity for
| full investigation Of the charges Of my ad-
versary as far as l could conscientiously
permit but to fight every attempt to per-
Knit litigation for the purpose of disorgan-
| izing the city government. The charge
that 1, for the purpose of holding my office
was willing to conceal a fraud seemed to
me so far beneath contempt to be un-
worthy Of my attention. 1t would have
been easy for me, had I considered only
my own political future, to have cast law
and order to the winds and to have yielded
to every demand of my opponent But II
l had done this, If l had consented to sac
rifice orderly city government to fur
Their my personal ambition, l would have
been false to my oath of office and false to
every duty that l owed to the people of this
| city.
| eff this fight of mine results in establish
| ing the precedent that once the verdict of
the people had been properly registered at
| the polls it is a final verdict l am content
whatever the cost may be to personally
If this precedent be not established 1 fear
for the security of our elections in the
future. If the vote for mayor be re-
canvassed twenty months after the election
why not the vote for governor or for PreSi-