Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-02-08
QUALLEY COUNTED OUT
Democratic Contest Court Rule With
High Hand i'm Finding.
DIsFRANCHIsE eie VOTERS.
After Two Recounts, Unable to De-
feat Qualley, Then Throw Out
Lincoln Township Entirely to
Accomplish Purpose.

When the curtain fell on the Sec
ond act of the democratic comedy
fiasco The Defeat of Tom Qualley"
at the court house last Friday the
Williams had accomplished their
fiendish purpose of annihilating the
hero of the play, whom they had
three times attempted to capture in
as many different campaigns with
out success; they had with one fell
blow laid him low and he was slow
ly but surely counted out"
Three times Tom Qualley had
during the past five years passed
through exciting campaigns, the
blunt of their attack, and three
times he had come out the victor.
This was too much. The last time
he had but 49 majority, and they
said: ''now's our time to get him. I"
So, unable to defeat him by the
votes of the people, they resorted to
the contest court The Henry Wat
terson of Winneshiek had had a
dream long months ago. He saw
the court house filled with demo-
Gratis, and the millineum just across
the river. He saw the dissension in
the republican ranks; the opportun-
ity was open, and the advantage
was taken. Whirlwind campaigns
were made, but the success was too
meagre for his avarice. He failed
to elect his candidate for Sheriff
and for Clerk of the Court, both of
which he counted on. Something
must be done, SO let's contest the
election of Tom Qualley. Carolan
was induced to file a contest 1--WE
are inclined to think rather against
his wishes) and the play proceeded.
The sage of course became a mem-
ber of the court. and through keen
foresight or else a mere accident,
his defeated candidate for Clerk be-
came chairman of the board of SUI
pervisors and ex-officio chairman of
the contest court. OF course Quail
ley was represented on the court,
but with one republican, as against
two democrats.
The play proceeded. Technicali-
ties so infinitely remote as to re-
quire the widest possible range of
Imagination were taken advantage
Of. Ballots were thrown out by the
score, voters disfranchised by the
hundreds on one technicality or an
other. The ruling as to what con-
stitutes an Identification of the ball
lot was so sweeping in it's scope as
to cover almost any possible con-
tingency. Not single precinct in
the county escaped. After the
judges of election had declared all
the ballots legal, ballots were
thrown out by this court in every
single voting precinct, ranging from
three to two hundred to the pre-
cinct. The objections of Mr.. Quail
ley's attorney seemed to have little
weight and certainly no appreciable
influence with the court.
Finally they completed going
through the entire county, and still.
with all they had thrown out, Quail
ley was "a ahead. OF course that
would not do. So they skirmished
about and dug up court de-
cision in some other state, referring
to technicality which they
claimed might effect some of the
ballots that they had canvassed be-
fore Jan. 1st, when Mr.. Jewell was
chairman of the contest court, and
now, with Mr.. Cooper as chairman,
they wanted to do 1t over again. So
they went back, recounted the re-
count in sixteen precincts. Still
Qualley was votes ahead. Good
ness, gracious, this is awful. lney
had already disfranchised AIS vot-
ers of Winneshiek county, already
declared that AIS people didn't
know how to vote, and still not
enough. What could be done?
This is what was done. They
threw out the entire vote of Lincoln
township. disfranchised 201 more
voters in a lump, and this
gave Carolan 60 to the good.
The excuse that they gave
was that there was some diff
ference between the number of bal
lots returned by the judges of cleo
tion to the auditor and the number
marked on the poll books. They
did not claim In this instance that
all these voters did not know how to
vote. Three hundred ballots were