Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-01-07
Consent Petitions
Validity Will Depend
Upon a Technically
Objections Raised to Enough Names
on Withdrawal Petition to
Dispose Of 1t.

Around a table piled high with greasy
and we'll worn manuscripts, upon which
were scrawled names of more or less illegi-
bllity to the number of 5000, the Board of
County Supervisors spent all day yester-
day in the heavy task of determining
whether the required majority of qualified
voters in Pottawattamie county had signed
the saloon consent petition.
The board remained in session until after
o'clock and still the task was not COM
pleted. All of the work, however. was done,
with the exception of reaching a decision
upon the number of the names on the with
drawal petition to be considered as fulfilling
the purpose prescribed by law. This de-
cision will not be reached until some time
today, although the board was partly in
clned last evening hold a private con-
ference for the purpose of expediting mat
tiers.
Yesterday was the hardest day the new
board has encountered There was a con-
slant colloquial battle between the OPP
posing attorneys prompted frequently by
the suggestions Of the interested parties
on both sides. The whole day was spent
upon the withdrawal petition. The hurried
manner in which 1t had been prepared per-
mitted much cRrelessness and It was pre-
scented in a very ragged condition. Spe-
cific objections we're made to sixty-four
names and eight more were technically
objected to. Messrs FINLEY and Hess, coun-
sci for the consent petitioners, called for
the application Of the rule agreed to on
the previous day, when II was insisted upon
by the other side, Of rejecting all names
that were technically defective, and the
battle was fought on these grounds.
There were several copies of the with
drawal petition that bore no date after
many OF the names, and others where the
year had been left out after the first sig
nature, but carried down to the end Of the
page by a string of ditto marks These
were all objected to.
In their summing up, the attorneys for
the consent petitioners asked the board
to refuse TO consider all Of the Withdrawals
when signed under headings that were
| likewise explicit, as for example, where
the heading stated that the Withdrawals
were from a petition heretofore circu-
! lated" but failing to tell when by giving
! the year In others the defective headings
stated that the Withdrawals were from
"a petition circulated in Pottawattamie
county and filed on the blank day OF blank
1910" Nearly one-half of the Withdrawals
were defective In this respect, and the at
torneys for the saloon men asked the board
to reject all such.
Lawyer Turner for the anu-saloon fac
ton contended that the Iowa statute. fall
ing TO specify the precise manner in which
the signer should proceed 10 get his name
removed. IL left him the widest latitude
for the exercise OF a personal right
The objections TO the anti-consent petit
ton were finally crystaliEed into these
words dictated by Attorney Hess 'ob-
lection is made TO each and every sigma
ture on the withdrawal petition for the
reason that they are not sufficiently spe-
cific that they do not refer to the petit
ton filed on December 90 1910; that the
said signatures are not identified in the
manner prescribed by law and are not
verified by proper affidavit; that the affi-
davits which purpOrt to have been made
have no reference to the signatures except
in a few instances; that they are mostly
on separate sheets OF paper which are not
Identified as a part OF the petition to which
the signatu es were signed and are In no
way a part OF the Withdrawals"
A number OF other technical objections