The Alaska citizen., 1917-01-01
THE LATEST RETURNS.

pdtCl4 itLdlI\t JO lut ttlcSdlt eltC- ton. II is from the Cordoya Times and is interesting to the people who have been waiting long and anxiously for some definite conclusion regard ing the election of the delegate from Alaska, for the reason that it con tains the first information received l here for a long time which could De called authentic in any sense of the word. It says that the corrected
 vote of the territory shows that
 Wickersham is leading Sulzer by six votes.
 The Citizen has heretofore, that is, since the first few days after election. made no attempt to keep tab on the returns of the delegate election For We were not long in realizing that the vote would prob ably be so close as to neCessitate a complete recount or at least contest, before the man who is elect
 ed will take his place as the rep
 resentative of AIaIha in congress. And even now, with such a certain statement as that contained in the
 dispatch from Cordoya, we would certainly hesitate a long time be fore declaring that Wickersham is i elected.
 The difficulty of collecting and tab uIating the election returns was un- l doubtedly responsible for the first miXups which occurred. For returns from the other divisions, if sent here by separate parties. never were the same That is, there was always a variance of anything up to a hun dred votes in the reports, while in one instance, at least, Wickersham was given 800 more votes in the report than should have been credit ed to him. All of which had the effect of mixing up the tabulating of election returns to such an eX- tent that it was practically impOs- sible to tell which from 'tother," so to speak And even after the tangle had been strengthened out it was plain to be seen that nothing but complete official returns could de termine who had been elected.
 But now that the official returns are in, can they be believed? Or is it at all probable that the cleo ton, being as close as it undoubtedly is, will be conceded by either of the candidates for the delegateship?
 We think not. Which makes safe the prediction that with the report of the canvassing board, the battle has been but begun. For it is prob able that the board will have a great deal of trouble in settling the matter
 of voting Irregularities which took ! place in some precincts in every di-
 vision, if general reports can be be lieVed.
 1 For instance the Cordova Times i of recent date asserts that at Ou-
 zinka, in the Third division. where l Sulzer had a plurality of thirty one votes, the natives were voted. And ] it is altogether probable that the i vote from there will be thrown out
 if that assertion be true.
 1 On the other hand, the legality | of soldiers votes is contested. They 1 voted here, at Fort Gibbon, at St
 Michael and several other places l That contest is another which will
 have to be settled by the canvass
 ing board.
 Then there is the Klopsch incl
 dent, wherein Louis Klopsch, of this l city, while enroute Outside, voted in | the Third division and for Wicker
 sham Such voting as his will un
 doubtedly be contested
 And so it goes. Which is short
 way of saying that nobody will know
 who is elected until the successful
 candidate takes his seat in congress
 For friends of Delegate Wickersham
 here assert that he will not sit calm ly by and see the canvassing board
 count him out on account of irregu-
 larities And on the other hand he
 will contest the votes of soldiers
 everywhere if such action is neces
 sary to insure his election. For
 all of the precincts where soldiers
 vote. except Fairbanks, particularly
 Tanana and St. Michael. where the
 regular vote is small, went for Sul-
 ger. It is also predicted that Dele
 gate Wickersham will carry the fight
 to the floor of congress If his op-
 ponent is declared elected by the
 canvassing board.