The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1916-12-28
&c LETTER FIR
Or GILCHRIST

lIdent Wilson 'S Secretary N'
Catholic was a candidate fer hig|
Office, in Florida. None iect
led. Mr.. Cats has stated has h
viii treat them all fairly which
undoubtedly would hssH bee,
done by any Of the oth cardi
ldates. Mr.. Cats will do 5ont a,
the others have done-the est h,
can.
1t was the duty Of Mr.. Knott Il
contest the election. He w0ult
have been unworthy Of thesuppor'
of those who voted for him, if hi
had not done so. Five candidates
for governor, about $4,000 poiled
Mr.. Cats led Mr.. Knott by ~
votes, including first and second
choice votes, in certain precincts
were ignorantly credited to Mr.,
Cats. The inspectors afterwards
stating that in as much as the tai
" sheets called for all the first
choice votes to be placed in the
first column, to the left of the
names of the candidates, that all Of
the second choice votes should be
placed in the first column to the
right Of the candidates. Mr. cats
name coming alphabetically first,
he received the benefit Of all such
errors. In many precincts, the
inspectors placed all of ths see
ond choice votes in the crossed
oli column, where they could not
be counted at all. There isn't
any man living who doesn. say
that the votes should have been
as they were cast.
These errors show ON the face
of the returns at many of the
county seats. Mr.. Knott would
have been a great coward if he
had not insisted on the correction
OF such errors.
1t should be shown who stole
the ballot box in the Watertown
precinct; who stole the ballots out
Of the boxes in certain precincts
in Baker county.Such thefts pre-
vented q recount Of those ballots.
The ballots had to stand as orig
inally counted. Who received the
benefit Of such2 It should be
shown who tampered with the
Greenville precinct ballot box.
Al reward should be offered.
Mr.. Knott's great error consist
cd IN having thrown out the lis
votes Of Madison county. THIS
Was exclusive of the So votes of
he Greenville precinct. BY SO do
fg, he gave the opposition the op-
portunity off contesting the nomi-
nation up the within thirty days
i the November election. The
'9 votes OF Alachua county were
llwcys kept In the front. A con-
'lnuous campaign Of "swindling"
hr Cats out of the nomination,
Fas always in evidence The peo-
he were led to believe that Mr.. |
yatts was being swindled out of
ne Nomination. Thirty days be- |
ore the November election, Mr..
xnott was finally known as the
lominee--too late to change the
ide.
Every candidate in the Demo
ratio primary swore that he
you'd support the nominee. I|
Mr.. Knott for COVER
or. | would have supported Mr..
,atts, had he been the nominee.
he continued and continuous
Lain that the SO votes Of the a.
ichua precinct had never been
ounted for Mr.. Cats, Mr.. Knott's
lad being only about %, did
luch toward the election of Mr.. y
ats. Many Democrats voted
Or Mr.. Cats, believing that he
-as the rightful nominee. Some
eople say that figures won't lie. (
hink of this in connection with 1
ne figures 6s They sure pull
d one over the people Of Flori-
a. h
| am temporarily here. attend
lg to some business.
Waycross Ga, Dec. 18th 1916. h
Very truly,
ALBERT w GILCHRIST.