The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1916-11-02
Cost of a Recount in all the Coun-
ties-of DeSoto County Alone
S1.044.CC

ties-of DeSoto County Alone
$1,044oC
Punta Gorda, October 30.-lr
the Knott-Catts controversery
many claim that Knott shoulc
have had the entire vote of thu
State, recounted. Knott states
that his brother contributed 81,
10000 towards the expenses of the
Recount. In every effort to Re.
count, Cats, through his attor.
neys, opposed such. In the great
County of DeSoto, there are thir.
ty-six Precincts-three inspectors
and one clerk in each precinct, to-
tai one hundred and forty-four at
three dollars per day, $4,000
Assuming that the average dis
tance Of each is twenty miles from
the Courthouse, at ten cents a
mile, $2SS.00; ten cents mile to
the. Sheriff for summons, $2S8.00.
Say twenty-five cents for the
County Judge for issuing sum-
mons. On such basis, the total
expense of a Recount for DeSoto
County is $I,044.00. There are So
counties in Florida. They are, of
course not as large as the great
County of DeSoto. There are ov-
er 1,1O0 Precincts in Florida, av-
eraging over 21 Precincts to the
County, or about two thirds the
number of Precincts in DeSoto. 1t
is unreasonable to suppose that
Knott could possibly have had all
the Precincts of the State Re
counted. Besides in order to Sc
cure a Writ of Mandamus, it is
necessary to show error or fraud
on the face of the returns or from
reliable testimony. Such could
not have been done in all the
counties
Arrangement of Tally Sheets,
Cats Name Coming First, AL
phabetically, Gave Him Many
Enormously Counted Ballots
Precinct No. 13 of Santa Rosa
Co., No. % of Marion Co, No.
At of Hillsborough - Should
Knott Receive the Votes In
tended for Him by the Voters?
Cats, the Counted-In Candidate
of the Inspectors
The tally sheets as returned by
the inspectors of the various pre-
cinctS are filed with the supervis-
or Of registration and with the
county judge of the respective
counties. They are public docu-
ments and as such are subject to
inspection. 1t is natural to as
sumo that some friend of Knott
at some of the county seats ex-
amined the tally sheets, as he had
a right to do.
The tally sheets are arranged as
follows:
At the top "first choice votes
names of candidates Under
this column, come, alphabetically,
the names of Cats, Farris, Hud-
son. Knott, Wood. In the hori-
zontal column and at the top and
to the right of the heading of
"names of candidates" are "Sec-
ond choice votes cast for Sidney
j. Cats" and so on in alphabet
cal order, for Farris, Hudson,
Knott and Wood. Cats second
choice votes come to the immedi-
ate right of the names of candi-
dates; first choice votes come i'm
mediately to the left of the names
of candidates. In each column of
second choice votes there is a
dead" square in which no
second choice votes are to be
placed, because voter who votes
first choice for Cats, say, could
not cast his second choice vote
for Cats. For such second
choice vote there is therefore a
crossed-out or dead square.
For instance, in precinct No. 13,
Santa Rosa county, the tally sheet
showed, as originally tailed, that
Farris received three first choice
votes, Knott ten, Wood eight,
Cats and Hudson none. Yet all
the second choice votes were tai
lied in the vertical column head