The San Francisco call., 1909-07-23


w signatures to the nominating
petition of Fritz Gercke. repub-
lican candidate for supervisor, was dis
covered by Registrar Zemansky yes
terday. The examination OF the
Gercke petition showed that "a afi
davits taken by Carl Walter, verif-
cation deputy who worked for the
county committee, bore fraudulent sig
natures
The bogus signatures were all of the
crudest kind. No attempt was made
to initiate the writing of the voters
whose names were misused; the names
and addresses were simply copied out
OF precinct index and in many in
stances were badly misspeiled. Com
parison of the handwriting with the
signature OF Carl Walter, the eertffica-
ton deputy who submitted the frsudu-
lent afidavits, indicated that he had
written several of the names himself.
In A B c ID Order
The names and addresses are those
of voters in the thirtieth district. most
of them from single precinct. Thar
the criminal work was dispatched with
the least possible trouble to the perpe-
traitor is indicated by the apparent fact
that the index was opened at the first
page and the two dozen names picked
out from the letters A. B. c and d.
Followipg is a list Of the names and
addresses:
c. p. Allen, 77s Tehama.
W. Tiff Briggs, $50 Tehama
samuel n. BarnhIseI, 1852 Folsom.
Jacob BIOOme, SIS Clementina.
George Bushey, II Rausch.
Charles II. IT. Brown, 10 Langton.
George w. Burton, 271 Eighth
Alexander Becker, 2O3 Ninth.
Joseph Burke. 2s7 Ninth
Takes Next on List
Christian BrOderson, TS9 Clementin.
James Crusturi, 971 Eighth
Martin Canavan, 752 Clementina
John II. Cross. 72s Clementina.
William {. CoTey. 2sS Eighth
W. II. COnkIfn, 716 Clementina.
Martin Boyle, 50 Haywood
August Bastian, 93S Bryant.
Howard W. Crawford, 231 Langton.
Harry It. COe, 42 Chesley.
p. c. Christensen, "a Chesley.
Daniel DOugherty, 25s Langton.
George A. DOnOEhue, 21S Langton.
VI. p. DannerIng. 94s Bryant.
Walters Reckless Methods
Attention was first called to the
fraudulent signatures by Alfred D. Al
len, registration clerk. who was
charged with the examination OF the
Gercke petition. He reported the mat
ter to Daniel Gordan and both Gordan
and Harry Zemansky. the registrar.
compared the names on the afhdavits
with the signatures on the great reg
lister and agreed that they had been
copied.
A curious phase OF the matter was
that some Of the voters whose names
were attached. had already signed the
Gercke petition and when the afhdavits
were arranged IN books by district and
precinct the genuine and bogus afh-
davits were brought together But even
if this had not happened. Walters
reckless methods would surely have
been discovered.
The prosecution OF Walter rests with
the election commission. to which Reg
istrar zemansky viii report the mat
ter. The offense is felony. covered by
section Al OF the penal code. which
reads as follows:
Section Al. Every person charged
with the performances of any duty. un-
der the provision OF any law OF this
state relating TO elections. who will
fully neglects or refuses to perform it.
or who, in his official capacity. know
ingiy and fraudulently acts in contra
vention or violation Of any OF the pro-
visions of such laws. is. unless a dif-
ferent punishment for such acts or
omissions is prescribed by this code.
punishable by fine not exceeding one
Thousand dollars. or By Imprisonment
in the state prison not exceeding hve
years. or by BOTH
Known as HanGerOn
Walter who lives at 80 Laskie street.
has recently been hanger-on at the