The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1909-02-05
They Refused to Throw Out
Ballots Which Bore Evi-
dence of Honest
Voting.
GMELICH WAS FINALLY SEATED
Democrats Claimed Election
of Painter Oh a Mere Tech
nicality and Wanted to
Deprive Gmelich of
Thousands of Hon
est Votes.

Special Correspondence.
Jefferson City, Feb S.-A month |
of the legislative session OF 100
days Qacking the first six days),
has passed, and no business other
than the election of officers of the
House, the Inauguration of Gov
ernor Hadley and Ave other state |
officers and the election of a Unit
ID States senator has been trans
acted. More than two weeks of
this time has been occupied with
an effort to determine who was
elected lieutenant governor.
While bipartisan committee OF
the House and Senate was en-
gagged in recounting the ballots for
that Office in the city of st. Louis
a nd in disputed precincts in sever
al counties the two bodies of the
General Assembly were stopped
by a provision of the constitution
fro m doing any of the regular work
of the Legislature, and senators
and members have been compelled
to remain here in idleness.
1t is well to emphasize the fact
that the Republicans are not re-
ponsible for this unfortunate sit
u alton. They came here ready to
accept the official returns on all
the Offices including the lieutenant
governor. For that Office the re-
turns showed the election of their
candidate, J. F. Gmelich, but the
majority was 30 small and the re-
turns had been made to appear so
doubtful by the Democrats that a
contest was not to be avoided.
They joined the Democrats in an
agreement to recount the ballots
in st. Louis and fifteen precincts
outside of that city, from which
/ doubtful returns had come. A BIZ
partisan committee was agreed to
| in good faith and a committee,
+ made up of leading senators and
members representing each party
went to work in apparent good
faith.
One of the rules adopted by the
committee was that only legal bal
+ lots should be counted. In the
E count, during the first several days
quite number of ballots nor pro.
perly initiated, were found in the
, boxes, but no considerable per.
!, centage of such ballots were found
;. in any one box, so there was nc
objection from either side to ex
Guiding such irregular ballots
After the election of Stone las
week the count was resumed, bu
the Democratic members of the
committee were not very enthu
siastic because they found tina
: Gmelich was gaining and realized
- hat he was almost sure to win th'
. contest. On Thursday of las
u week, however, the tide turned il
/ Painters favor and the Democrat
'' became hopeful, only to see
4 quick change later when wards II
L which they expected gains TO
Painter, showed heavy gains TO
Gmelich. i.
Then came discovery whic'
g. interfered with the harmony of tn
~ committee and led the Democrat
a. to take an untenable position
u position to which they clung tens
ciously to the end, because 1t wa
80 the only way they could hope t
as seat Painter-and here is the sin
d. pie truth about it:
o. In counting the ballots in pr
IT, cinct in one of the wards whel
e. the German American vote pr
n dominates 1t was found that bl
few of the ballots were properl
initiated by the judges. thoue
lis every ballot seemed otherwise a
right, and, in fact, not ono ball
In che box was open TO suspicie
Il