Palisadian., 1915-10-02

Excitement was paramount about
the four polling districts of the bor-
ough of Fort Lee, when on Tuesday
morning the election officers discover
ed that a serious omission had been
made in the Republican ballots.
Everybody seemed up tree as to
what to do, and indeed they had a
good right to be, for never in the
whole history of the borough had
such an occurrence happened, at
least, since the Primary laws have
been in effect.
1t was new situation, indeed, and
election laws were thumbed a-plenty
along with other manuals on the
subject, until Judge Seufert settled
the whole matter by declaring the
ballots void and ordering new ones
printed as soon as possible.
The whole trouble was caused by
the omission of the line above the
names of those candidates seeking
the nomination for Freeholder which
should have read as follows:
"For Chosen Board of Freeholders;
Vote for 2 for l year, 2 for years,
and for 3 years"
On the ballot the space which
should have been occupied by this
phrase was vacant, thus giving the
voter no idea of what the men whose
names he saw were running for, un-
less from some previous knowledge,
otherwise, they might just as well
have been running for president.
Candidates whose names appeared
On the ballot were much incensed
over the error, because they did not
know whether the votes which had
been cast before the mistake was
noticed would be counted, or whether
the entire Primary would have to
be run over again. 1t was a provok-
in and puzzling situation.
Some candidates even went so far
as to infer that the error had been
due to improper influences and the
whole matter had been a scheme to
keep certain Republican candidates
from being nominated, by attempting
to befuddle the voter. Others could
not find terms powerful enough to
express their opinion of a printer,
who would allow such ballots to go
to press without the proper proof
reading. One or two thought that
neither the politicians of the oppos-
ing party nor the printer were to
blame, but the borough clerk, Mr..
Lebright was solely at fault. In
short the whole affair was a great
big muddle, with no one calm enough
to fix the blame where it belonged.
Then came the decision of Judge
Seufert from Hackensack which pour
ed oil upon the troubled waters and
altered the mess materially. The
ballots which were defective must be
destroyed. New ones must be sub
stituted Immediately. The votes
which had been cast previously to
the discovery of the mistake would
be counted, because the error had
been discovered before any serious
damage had been done and had been
rectified as soon as it was in the
power of man to do so.
John N. Race, who printed the i'll
fated ballots when asked how the
mistake had been made said as fol-
lows:
cat first l was unable to account
for it, but upon thorough investi-
cation later l find that the line m
question must have dropped on the
floor while the form was being trans
ferred from the imposing stone to
the press, and was not noticed. The
sample ballots which were printed
in my shop were o. X. The dropping
out of this line was an accident pure
and simple which would be apt to
happen to printer at most any time.
However, do not see how it happen.
ed to me, because this is the first
time | have ever made a blunder on
an official ballot and | have been
printing them for great many years.
All that can say is the fault is en-
tirely my own and that / am more
sorry than | can say.