Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-12-08
UPSET RESULT
IN OCEAN 60.
Claim Made Ballot Was
Tempered with.


Lakewood, Dec. S:-George c
Low, Democrat, who was declares
| elected senator of Ocean county b.
a majority of eighty-one on the re
turns of the late election, will no
stand for the remarkable overturI
of the recount by which Senate
A. Mathis is claimed to be reelected
by a majority of Al. Mr.. Low Is go
ing to fight the case to the last ditch
whether his application for q re
count of the whole county is granted
or not. He and his friends declare
openly hat the result of the recount
| smells to Heaven; that there IL
| strong ground for the suspicion tha'
there was ballot-boX tampering after
| the official returns were tabulated
| and that somebody is going to suffer
from an investigation that will not
| stop till the whole truth of what ap-
! pears to be a bold steal is wholly
uncovered.
The application of Mathis for a
recount was confined solely to the
two districts of Lakewood township
and to Dover township. Until the
second district of Lakewood town.
ship was reached there had been
slight gains for Low over the official
returns. Then, all at once, came the
strange o~verturn of rs votes for
Mathis in that district, giving him
in the county Al majority. and even
the two Republicans in the election
board of that district r~epudiate the
count and express a belief that. the
ballots had been tempered with
after they had certified TO the result
on election night. They Vehemently
denounce the overturn Of 1872 votes,
asserting that they had tailed the
vote correctly and the tally sheet
! which they sealed in the box CORE
! spends with their statement.
There is a good deal at stake il
| the fight for the senatorial seat from
| Ocean. The man who is sworn in a
the organization on the Legislature
will sit for three years. He will no
only have a vote next January TO,
the election of the successor to Johl
Kean as United States senator, blu
for the successor to Frank o. Briggi
In 1918. If Mathis is seated it will
.givs the Republicans 10 instead o
IL votes in the next senate and ado
that much to their chance of con
trolling the senate next year and tn
year after that. 1t is expected tina
in the next two elections the Demo
Gratis will make hard fights for theti
legislative tickets in hope of captur
ing the United States eenatorshiI
again two years hence, so that the
contest in Ocean Is of more thar
ordinary interest. ,. .n~
Low and his friends openly charge
that the ballot-box In the second dis
trict of Lakewood, where the re
count showed q difference of 49,
votes from that announced by the
election board, have been tamperee
with. In support Of this contention
Mr.. Low and the Democrats are cit
ing the stand of Professor Clute, the
Independent Republican member o
the County Election Board, which
made the recount. Mr.. Clute public
ly protested while the votes of the
district were being counted that
there was something suspicious
about the ballots.
The suspicious thing was thai
whereas most of the ballots were
creased and dirty from handling
those on which Low was counted GU
by q sudden overturn were nearl.
all straight" Republican tickets
and were all new and clean. An
other fact Is that they came out il
strings, of twelve, fifteen and BIZ
numbers for Mathis, with here ant
there d Low ballot, while in al
! other districts of the count the coun
had see-sawed back and forth wit
first one mar and then the othe
ahead. The ballot boxes were onl
fastened with light locks and it j
alleged by the Democrats that fror
election day to the time when tn
application for the recount wa
made they reposed in the cellar @
the Town Hall, which is fairly cas-
of access.
The election officers in this di.
trict are: II. Ely Ravens and Cornt
Illus Conklin, Republicans; Cheste
Lane and Norman Grant, Democrat
Ravens is the son of II. Z. Haven
of Burrsville, and is we'll known |
the county. People who know tn
election officers say that it is incoi
ceivable that four of them entere
into a conspiracy to change tn
votes in that district. The tall
sheet in the ballot box agreed wit
the official returns. The fact is th5
either they falsifed the returns
the box has since been tampere
with and the ballots changed.
Any aEair. or happening. or eli