The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1912-09-17

the As clubs in the county there WaR
objection made as to only one box, in
which the votes of five or six-I do not
recall which-yoters were questioned
by Mr.. ,Keitt. l called on him, or any
parties who had any charges to make
of any Irregularities or any fraud, to
make those charges in the shape of
affidavits, so that any one who was
slandered by such charges could have
proper redress. Mr.. Keitt said he
had no formal charges to make, but
asked that the five or six votes he
mentioned be investigated, stating,
however, that he did not and would
not make any formal charges under af-
fidavit. l do not recall his exact Ian
guage, but this was the substance of
it. Mr.. W. H. Hardeman, who was
representing .iot box al the meeting,
secured the floor and made his expla-
nation of those votes, which was salts
factory to the executive committee.
You say in the third paragraph of
your letter that you want us to "as-
certain what persons have voted who
are not qualified to vote under the
rules of the party, to wit, minors, for
eigners, non-residents, etc., obtaining
affidavits as to facts" I respectfully
call your attention to the fact that at
the last convention of the Democratic
party in this State, the convention
adopted amendments to the rules pro-
viding for properly challenging dis
qualified voters There were thre
challenges, think, in Newberry coun-
ty out of 8, 100 votes, which challenges,
under the rules, were to be heard be-
fore the executive committee, but the
challangers did not appear and, con-
sequently votes were counted along
with the other votes, as the rule re-
quired
The only other irregularities, SO far
as / can learn, these being only in
formally brought to the attention Of
some of the individual members of the
committee, were that two boxes in the
county did not contain the poll lists.
These two boxes, Longshore and
Chappells, would not affect the result
in the slightest degree in the COVER
nor's race, and my information is that
when it was found that these boxes
would affect the result of a certain
county race and elect candidate who
voted for Gov. Blease, if thrown out,
no insistence was made by the man
who first investigated the matter, and
the matter was not formally brought
before the committee. AS l under
stand, there are no charges OF fraud
in connection with these two boxes,
but if it is desired that the two boxes
be brought before your subcommittee,
please advise me Immediately.
In regard to your fourth request, as
to illegal practices in your county"
I will state that, so far as am in
formed, and to my best knowledge and
belief, and, basing my statement upon
nv confidence in the character, hon
esty and integrity of the managers OF
election of Newberry county, ] believe
can say of my own knowledge, there
were no illegal practices" in my
county. l will state for your further
information that 1 am informed that
at many of the important and largest
boxes in this county, a certain candi-
date, to wit, Judge Ira B. Jones, cam
didate for governor, had representa-
tives who took a list of every person
voting, and they had ample opportu-
nifty to challenge any votes which
may have been illegal, and if these
challenges had been made they would
have been properly considred by the
county executive committee, and 1 be-
!ieve the only reason challenges were
not made was because there was not
the slightest foundation for them.
For these reasons l respectfully re-
fuse to comply with your request, be-
lieving it useless to put this county
executive committee, or the State exc
cutive committee, to the expense aid
trouble of having this information got
up for them, in the absence OF any
specific charges of fraud Or irregular
ity. l am unoficia!ly Informed that