Weekly journal-miner., 1911-01-11
ONE LONE FIGHT
 IN I'll EC1TY ELECTION
(From Wednesdays Daily.)

candidates nominated at the recent primary election, developed into an interesting contest yesterday at the city election, the office of treasurer being the object of competition. At the primary, Chas. K. Seholey won the nomination on the Democratic ticket from Ed. Blackburn, and his name was accordingly printed on the Democratic ticket. The friends of Blackburn did not take kindly to his defeat, as they believed that, having made a good official, he was entitled to a second term, and yes terday they determined to put up another scrap at the polls. Black burn, himself, was not aware of this plan until yesterday morning, and therefore did not have time to make campaign. As Seholey's name was printed on the ticket, he having won that advantage, as the result of the primary election, the only way in which Blackburn could be voted for, was to write his name in the blank space on the Republican col umn on the ticket, opposite the of flee of treasurer, or it could be writ ten on the Democratic column below Seholey's name, with a cross mark ed against it. In this case, however, the cross could not be placed in the regular square.
 Consequently, there was some live ly eleetioneering for this office, and when the polls closed, Seholey en- tered a protest with the election board against counting any tickets for Blackburn which had his name written upon them. Then the board sent for City Attorney Reese Ling to aid them in solving some of the problems which it was now foreseen would arise. MT. Ling's first ruling was that the Blackburn tickets should be counted, provided that the cross was marked against his name. This was in accordance with the decision made by Judge Sloan in the Keohane case. where many electors had voted for Keohane by writing his name but had failed to mark a cross op- posite. MT. Ling was also asked as to the disposition to be made of ballots where the voter had put a cross at the top of both the Repub- liean and Democratic columns. He advised that these be counted in asmuch as there were not opposition candidates for any of the various offices to be filled, and therefore there was no conflict. While it was a peculiar proposition that enables man to vote the straight Demo cratic and the straight Republican tickets at the same time, yet it is probable that such a hybrid ballot never was eoneoeted before in any municipality At any rate, there are no Supreme Court decisions to indi- cate that such a question ever arose before, and therefore MT. Ling took a eommon-sense view of the matter in giving his opinion. In order to understand the peeuliarity of the bal lot, it should be explained that there were seven offices to be filled For five of these there were Democratic candidates, and for the remaining two there were Republican candi- dates. In brief, the voter mad no choice, whatever, as there were no opposing candidates for any single office, as far as the printed names on the ballot were concerned. The Blackburn proposition was made pos sible only by reason of the fact that the voter has the right to write in any name on the ballot for whom he desires to vote for any particular office.
 There were 365 votes east and of these several were thrown out be- cause they contained no mark what ever to indicate the will of the voter The result was as follows:
 Mayor-M Goldwater, 255.
 Couneilman-A. J. Head, 273.
 Couneilman-Harry Heap, 1S5.
 Chief of Poliee-F. H. Heisler, 22S.
 Reeorder-J. H. Robinson, 251.
 Assessor-F. H. Williams, 265.
 Treasurer-Chas. K. Seholey, POS; Ed. Blackburn, 9S.
 It was reported last night that MT. Head will decline to serve fur ther as Councilman, as he has held the office continuously for eight years. Mayor GOldwater, it is said, is also averse to continuing as the executive of the city.