Arizona republican., 1912-12-02
DE EMOCRAT|C
 BULL MOOSERS
Funny Incidents of Flee tlon i'll Western New Mexico When Election Judges Thought They Knew Everybody.

I\uCN avery DOClN.
 The following excellent story from the Lordshurg Liberal is printed for no other reason than that it may in crease the gaiety of politicians over the state. It is needless to say the lauthor of this is the inimitable mint julep king of the Grant County, N M. dry places. yclept Don H. Kedzie ! Editor Kedzie conducts one of the most independent journals in the entire country He says what he thinks and writes it just how he thinks it The
 distraught strings of the Liberals edi-
 torial viol must have reioiced when ! the facts contained herein came to 1 light.
 | T. A. Merrill was in from the Lower l Gila this week, and was telling about i the recent election in that precinct
 As is well known the Lower Gila pre- cinct is reliably democratic, but al ways had a few republican votes Some . of the republicans have died, others 1 have moved away, and when the polls | i were opened election morning Mr | , Merrill counted on two republican | votes being in the box when the votes |
 were cast As soon as the polls were opened the judges and clerks proceed | ed to vote. When Mir Merrill offered { his vote Uncle George COsper chal-
 lenged it. on the ground that he had a bet on the election. Mr Merrill
 owned up and saw the republican vote
 of the precinct reduced 50 per cent
 It would not make any difference in
 the general results for he stopped the
 vote of the man on the other end of the
 bet, who would have voted democrat
 ic ticket Tn a few moments the other republican voter came in and voted, and then the box was filled up with democratic votes.
 When the polls closed the judges proceeded to count the ballots, which
 was admitted to be q mere formality
 as they might just as well have made up the returns from the list of men who voted counting one republican vote and all the rest democratic, but
 that would not have looked well, so ! they counted the votes in the regular way. and it was we'll they did so. . After the counting had proceeded while there was an exclamation of wonder and surprise from Uncle { George Cosper. When asked what ,. was the matter, he exhibited q bull = moose ticket he had just unfolded l, and wanted to know what democrat - had been so careless as to pick up and % vote ticket without looking at it. ; In a little while MT. Merrill found d - bull moose ticket, and told Uncle !, George he ought to send his dem - Ocratic voters to school this winter. = and teach them enough so they could - read their ticket. The careessness, or ignorance of the voters was de = plOred by the democratic members of l. the election board, but they counted N the tickets as they read. Soon a l. couple more bull moose tickets were al found. and then it daWned on the l. democratic members of the board that
 democrats had actually been voting
 the bull moose ticket, and the count , ing was stopped to consider the situa- , tion
 N It was proposed to throw them ou I as irregular, it being admitted that i
 was utterly irregular for q democra
 to vote anything but a democratic tick
 ct, but even MT Cosper would no N stand for that. Mir. Merrill proposet
 throwing out all the votes and declar = ing the election illegal, which met wit
 the approval of the board, until som
 one suggested that Merrill wanted t. O throw out the entire vote because to was about fifty to one democratic ne Then the board concluded to count tn
 rest of the votes and see how man or bull moosers there were anyway, S at that the measures could be taken { ; protect. When the last vote wa l6 counted it was found there were seVe
 bull moose tickets to be counted D. While worrying over the situation on W of the democratic judges in a luci " interval. looked over the tally shee
 and wanted to know what had becom ue of that lone republican vote. as it wa ed not tailed A careful inspection of tn T. tally sheet showed there was no repub es lican vote, and the inference was tha ul he too had voted the bull moose ticke ue George COsper, and so the talles wer ne footed up, the books signed and ser
 to the secretary of state.
 or The democrats have started an in le' vestigation to locate these six recalci III trant democrats and it has been re as solved that if they are discovered the
 will have to take the oath of allegienC H. before they are allowed to attend ar
 other election, as they did in Alabam
 after the war.
 WANTED-Brght young man a
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