The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1917-11-08

CINCINNATI, O.. Nov. THE wet
and dry fight in Ohio sec-Sawed here
today. and through a sensational di;cio-
sure Of n mistake alleged 10 have been
made In tho Hamilton county tabulatlon
the anti-prohibition forces claimed inc
lead tonight by 4 majority of go votes
with $50 precincts yet To he heard from.
The switch came late this afternoon
when. after the wet forces had claimed
that a mistake had been made. Ray !.
Hillnhrundl Il member Of the board OIL
elections. admitted that an error oc-
CURED in the tahulation and that whrE
the official count is mad" tomorrow
the wet majority will hr 10000 votes
more than the unofficial majority an
nouncnd last night.
Much of election night III" dryS were
in tho lead With tho small hours tn"
vets forged ahead i'll their turn anr
kept il for hours. though their advant-
age steadily dwIndlrd. and al noon today
the drvs overlook them. With an ar-
parent majority lhr drys were hnr'h"d
from their hard won trench by the re-
mort IF The mistake. The hrmh vas
exploded by H. l.. Gibson. manager Oh
the vets in tn, ohio campaign. who
tlSS"rt"d that AN error which cost IN"
vets ton Thousand votes had l""n dis
covered in the hamilton county tCincln-
nalD tahulati"n.
II was not long hcfnr" III" assertion
Of tn" wet leader was verified by
member Of thr board Of elections.
Ray J. Hlylcnbrandt. lhc board Nom
Der said:
II am very sorry .ha, this mistake
occurred during This election. The
forms on whic! thu returns 'arc brought
into the board Il elect IONS arc not Of
ficial and We order them sort in purely
for the purpose II giving tn" public all
The information possible relative Ia Inc
election At tn" earliest moment. IN
iahulating the returns on" Of IN" lapult-
tors recorded Il -" instead Of IN ~
and il was not found until "" checked
M. have been bcSirgrd with demands
for an explanation from all parts OF the
state and tin. only answer 7 can give
is ,ha, thu mistake was made and will
he rcciifird in tho official count tomor-
row. The canvass Of the ballots will
ha ruhlir anu both sides will he repre-
scented when the count is made
The slddrnnc$S with which the reVel-
alton came WAS fairly startling.
No clement WAS more greatly sur
priScd than the experts nf the vets
Of the state who worked all night At
tho headquarters nf thu Personal Lib
crty IeaSu" in cincinnati. They hid
been working from. duplicates. rs they
thought. Of tho hoard Of elections fig
ur>s on Cincinnati and Hamilton county
outside tho CITY When they stopped
their work carly Wednesday there were
still two wards Ia h.. heard from. Al
that time tho total majority for the
vets WAS about 5000 for the entire
county. on this basis tn" grand total
If tn" county majority was estimated
1t 5000.
They were amazed when they saw the
figures OF 1900 in early editions and
At nncN went over their own tahula-
lions They discovered no errors there.
Then they compared their own with the
figures 81 tn" board of elections and
found them identical as Ia each pre-
cnct The error could therefore lie i'll
only one place.
\ probable explanation Of how the
error was made follows: In tahula-
tions maGr public Tho stress of the mid
night canvass. Tuesday. it Is thought
i wrong key was struck on al adding
machine. a Seven" being pressed in
stead Of an eight" The figures as
compiled late Tuesday night gave the
"dryS" 21,"I0 in Hamilton county while
the "wrtS" canvass Wednesday gives
them y thousand less or $3.50. On the
nthcr hand ,hr "wstS" Tuesday night.
moreover" given only 1880 when &C
c"rd;n,; 10 the wet" canvass Wcdncs-
day they should have Sr.i20 or eight
ih"uSanl rlnr" Adding the excess OF
HI, "dryS" In tho deficiency of IN. wc;S
there is 4 wet gain Of exactly 1900.