The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-03

tion of Joseph j. Fern as Mayor of tn
City and County of Honolulu was file
in the Supreme Court yesterday after
noon. 1t is entitled James Kulike an
others VS.. Joseph j. Fern. The other
number thirtyfour, the petition includ
ing thirty-fve petitioners who alIeg
that they are each voters who voted a
the election for mayor and are there
) fore interested in the result.
George A Davis, A. g. NJ. Robertson
and A. L. c. Atkinson appear as at
torneys for the petitioners. Sheriff Tau
kea served the summons on Mayor FerI
who has ten days in which to answer
w. A. Kinney and E. NJ Watson are
expected to return from Maui on Sat
urday and it is probable that they will
Judge Edings will be retained to repre-
sent Mayor Fern.
About half of the petition is taken
up with a recital of the dOings of Viii.
lie Crawford at the polling place of the
| Fourteenth Precinct of the Fifth Dis
| trict. This is Crawford s precinct and
| his misbehavior is related at great
| length and with much particularly. In
fact this part of the petition sounds a
good deal like an indictment against
Willie Crawford.
Crawford is accused of artifce,
fraud and DEVICE in keeping the "tal-
ly-sheet of the count of said votes cast
at said precinct but it is not made
very clear just what tally-sheet Craw-
ford was keeping, whether it was one
of the official tally-sheets or private
one, nor how his "artifce, fraud and
device" could have affected the re-
suits. It is nowhere alleged that he
was an election official, and as mat
ter of fact he was not, the election
officials at that polling place being Ber-
nard H. KelekOliO, Sam Kaaloa and
John X. Motley. 1t does not allege that
he was employed in connection with the
election either by the Territory or the
County. 1t is said by those present at
that polling place that he may have
been a clerk appointed through the Re
publican Central Committee but this is
not alleged in the petition. 1t is not
even alleged directly that he was act
that "while acting as clerk' he used
the Hartifce, fraud and device'
complained of, though there is no such
thing as clerk or acting clerk known
to the election laws.
The petition, after saying that while
acting as clerk Crawford used artifice,
fraud and device, proceeds:
''That the said William H. Craw-
ford, in keeping the tally sheet of the
count of said votes cast at said cleo
ton, when they were being called off
by the inspectors of election, who
were counting said votes, would mark
the count of the votes east for the
said John c. Lane incorrectly, and
would mark on said tally sheet lncOr-
rectly, that is to say: He would
mark on the said tally sheet one, two,
three, four votes for the said John G.
Lane, and would call the same out as
four votes, whereas in truth and IN
fact FIVE or six votes should have been
that he, the said William H. |
Crawford, in using his pencil would |
not figure correctly, and would mark |
or pretend to make mark when the |
vote was called off, when in truth and |
in fact he made a mark through the |
figure already placed upon said tally |
sheet, or mark over the same, so that |
at the conclusion of the counting of |
the said votes a large number of votes |
which were cast for the said John G. |
Lane for the office of Mayor, as afore- |
said, to wit: about 81, did not appear
upon the said tally sheet; and the said |
William H. Crawford, so your petition |
ers are informed and believe, and upon |
their oaths allege and say that during |
the hours of the holding of said cleo |
ton, and within the polling booth of !
the said fourteenth election precinct of |
the so-called fifth election district, |
that the said William III. Crawford, in |
violation of the statute re-
NAMED within the space set apart for |
the polling place in said precinct and,
being conversant with the Chinese Ian
yuaGe attempted to influence and did |
influence by words or acts number of
lulv qualified electors of Chinese ma
who came to said polling
place to vote, and who did vote at said
election.
1t is then alleged that the way he
influenced these Chinese voters was to
persuade them to vote for Achf in
stead of for Lane. 1t is also alleged
that he offered to bet fifteen dollars
with Kulike that Achi would have a
of the votes in that precinct.
Aside from the charges against
Crawford, the petition alleges general
" that there was an election for
Mayor on November 3, 1908, at which
over five thousand votes
we're cast. That Fern, Lane and Achi
were all regularly nominated candi-
dates; that the County Clerk tabu
lated the results, showing 1920 votes
for Fern, 2212 for Lane and 1924 for
Aehi But it is alleged that in sew
eral precincts votes which were east
for Lane were not counted for him;
and that if all the votes which were |
east for him had been counted for
him, and only those votes counted for
Fern which were really east for him,
Lane would have been elected by a
plurality of 125. The precincts in
which it is alleged votes east for Lane
were not counted for him are the sec
ond third, eighth, ninth and four
teenth of the Fifth District, and in
the eleventh, it is alleged that twenty
votes were received after o'clock,
IL