Ottumwa tri-weekly courier., 1912-05-02
President Polls Bigger Vote
Than Two Opponents and
Iso ems; in Nine Out of Four
slH ''s's Districts.
LOSES DELEGATES
AT LARGE, HOWEVER
Unusual Situation Robs
Both Taft and Clark, Pri-
mary Leaders, Of Eight
Each; Delegation Split.

1cOoIOu, Nldbo., Nldy l.--NdSSdCuu'
sets emerged today from her first
presidential primary election to find
that the republican voters had ex-
pressed preference for the renomina-
ton of President Taft but nothwith-
standing had given Col Roosevelt
eighteen of the thirty-six delegates to
the national convention Roosevelt
leaders said today that the Taft pref
erence would have no effect on the
eighteen delegates chosen "for Roose-
velt" and that expression of the voters
for Taft woul1 be disregarded.
The democratic voters Of the state
expressed preference for Speaker
Champ Clark, although majority OF
the delegates to Baltimore will go
pledged to Gov. Foss.
Returns from LOTT out of 1850 'elec.
ton precincts give
Republican presidential preference)
LaFollette, 1,756; Roosevelt, 71,203;
Taft, 74,80S.
Baxter (heading Roosevelt group,
l74,121; Crane (heading Taft group,
6b.876. Democratic (presidential pref
erence), Clark, t9.so3; Wilson. 9,206.
| Delegates-at-large:, Coughlin (pledged
to Foss), 17;050; Williams (for prefer.
ence primary S,256.
| Wording Of Law Causes situation.
Just how Massachusetts could send
an evenly divided delegation to Chi.
cago while on the preference vote
Taft has plurality OF $500 over
Roosevelt, is partly explained by the
wording of the state presidential pref.
erential primary law enacted two
months ago. BY that law every voter,
to have his vote recorded, was com
pelled to mark each delegate-at-large
of his party, there being no circle for
voting by groups. The law enabled
hundreds Of voters to mark the eight
names in the delegation headed by G.
S. Baxter and styled "for Theodore
Roosevelt" and then express prefer
ence for Taft on another part of the
| ballot.
Clark Wins; Foss Gets Delegates.
| On the democratic ticket, although
ten of the fifteen candidates for dete-
gstes-at-large to Baltimore were either
pledged to or indicated to be for"
| Gov. Foss, there was no Foss name IN
the presidential preference column.
| Speaker Clark, whose name did ap-
pear in the preference and who de-
feated Gov. Wilson by vote of to1,
did not have a single pledged delegate
on the list Many Of the democratic
district delegates were also elected
pledged to Foss
Independent Injured Taft.
F, Another incident which some OBJ
servers say may have had bearing on
the selection of Roosevelt delega-
tion-at-large with a Taft preferential
! DC nd du, Lob IN IN rf the %
! Of former State Senator Frank Seiber-
itch, pledged to Taft" between the
Roosevelt and Taft groups. Mr. Sci
bertich claimed today that he was i'll
treated by the Taft managers and
therefore ran independently. Reports
from many precincts show that hum
dreds of ballots were thrown out be-
cause voters had invalidated their
ballet by voting for nine instead OF
eight names beginning with Seibertich
and going through the entire regular
Taft column of eight names. The
space between the name Of Seitbertich
and the Taft group was slight.
Every one of the eighteen Taft dele.
gates Is pledged for Taft" while all
of the eighteen Roosevelt. delegates
are "for Roosevelt"
L TIdCJlCdAy SOhlPlSGS -
fourteen congressional districts show
the complete Massachusetts, delega
ton to Chicago will stand 18 for Roose.
welt and 18 for Taft.
:, Roosevelt delegates include ths
eight at large and two each from tbs
fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth and
fourteenth. The Taft delegates ara
those from the first, second. third.
sixth, eighth, eleventh. twelfth and
thirteenth districts.
l Both Winners Lose Delegates.
It is expected that the Roosevelt
delegates who appeared on the ballot
as "for Theodore Roosevelt" will
carry out such instructions and dis
regard Taft's preferential majority.
In both the republican and the demo-
cratic campaigns the candidate who
won the presidential preference con-
test failed to gain the delegates-at-
large owing to an unforeseen turn in
the primary law
With the returns from all but four
} of the voting precincts 1t hand, Mr..
!. Taft has margin of nearly 1000
! votes but the eight delegateS-at-la large