The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1924-11-13
MANY ERRORS in
COUNT OF VOTES
With Recount Completed
to Eighth Ward Will
lens is Gamer.
FIND OVERCOUNTS
Board Makes No Effort to Ac-
count for Discrepancy in
Reports of Election.

Frank ,"Baldy" Willems was leading
John Hacker in the race for sheriff OF
Kenosha county by 173 votes when the
members Of the official canvassing
board of the county had completed the
counting of the votes up to the eighth
ward in the wee sma' hours of the
morning today. Then the members Oh
the board decided to rest until o'clock
this afternoon. The rest was some
thing of an enforced one, as the coun-
ty board of supervisors met for it's an
nual session this morning and the
presence Of all the members of the
board was demanded at this meeting.
The canvassing board will be forced
to work overtime from now on until
the recount of the ballots is completed
but even with overtime work 1t IS ex-
pected that the work will be completed
sometime Thursday night.
No other demands for a recount OF
the ballot had been made to the board
today, but it was said that the sllgnt
gain in the majority of Willems had
been most interesting to some OF the
other Dem ocratic candidates and that
it was possible that one of them might
ask for recount after the recount on
the office Of sheriff was concluded. The
runors couple the name of George
Lauer with the proposed petition but
Mr.. Lauer himself has made no an
nouncement of such an intention.
Many Errors are Found.
It is admitted that the recount has
revealed many errors in the tabulat-
ing and return of the vote and the
members of the board have absolutely
refused to make any effort to account
for the discrepancies found. In most
cases it is believed to be due to- the
fact that the election officials were
worn out to such an extent as to make
accuracy impossible. Not single
ward has been found where the official
canvass actually Tailed with the result
found by the recount of the votes.
The fourth ward came nearest to hav-
ing clean sheet, but in this ward the
second check found two more votes
than had been reported for Willems.
The early gain of Hacker in the re-
count of the ballots was wiped out
when the board completed the check
ing Of the votes cast in the fifth ward.
In this ward the election officials had
been overly kind to both of the candi-
dates. The recount showed a loss of
25 votes for Hacker and IL for Will
ems, making net gain for Willems Of
votes.
Willems Gains in the Sixth.
Willems registered his biggest gain
in the recount in the sixth ward where
the recount added 80 votes to his col
umn. This was made up by gain of
Willems of 80 votes and a loss to
Hacker of Is votes.
eve haven't any idea what made this
big difference" was the comment of
members of the election board; eve
are supposed to count the votes and
not, to account for errors. The vote
showed these figures and this is all
that we have to go by"
The long time spent by the members
of the election board in the seventh
ward was not guarantee of accuracy,
but it is admitted that the seventh
came little closer to getting the real
result. In this ward the recount
showed an addition of two to the Hack
er column and an addition of eight to
the Willems vote, making net gain
of six for Willems in this ward.
Big Wards Out of the Way.
With the largest of the voting pre-
cincts out of the way, the members of
the canvassing board saw the end of
their task in sight. 1t is planned to
recount the eighth and ninth wards at
the sessions starting this afternoon
and continuing through the evening
and this will leave the votes of the
towns of Somers and Pleasant Prairie
to be recounted at sessions Thursday.
The farther the board went in its work
the more it became convinced that the
inal check Of the votes would not
bring any change in the result as an
nounced on the day after election. This
was declared to be true not only for
the office of sheriff but for all the
county offices. 1t was said today that
q court action on any of the contests
was only a remote possibility.
Elmer Smith, chairman of the first
precinct of the First ward election
officials declared today that he was
nisquoted in regard to the ninety
ballots found in the precinct and not
accounted for in the tally. Mr.. Smith
rays that the ballots were counted all
right but that the count was never
transferred to the tally sheet.