The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-12-29
RECOUNT OF VOTES
INCREASES MARGIN
FOR H. F. TIEDMAN
81 Majority Reported BY Can
vassing Board Lifted to 80
in Court Decision
BOTH TOTALS ARE LOWER
IS Ballots From One Precinct
Thrown Out Because of
. Error BY Inspector

H. F. Tedman gained two votes in
the official recount of ballots cast
for commissioner from the fifth Bur-
leigh county district, it was found
Thursday In district court.
The official return by the county
canvassing board gave Tiedman I 1862
votes to 1925 for Victor Moynier,
commissioner for the last IL years,
who subsequently contested the elec-
ton. This was margin of 81 votes.
The recount gave Tiedman 1850 to
1911 for Moynier, a margin of 80.
Twelve of the IS precincts in the
district were examined In the re-
count. Ballots from the other pre-
cinct had not been properly protect
ed from possible tampering, District
Judge Fred Jansonius ruled, and the
count of the canvassing board for
that precinct was accepted.
OF the IL precincts recounted, err
rors were found in all but one as
compared with the official report of
the canvassing board. In most of
these cases, however, the mistakes
were found to favor Tiedman rather
than Moynier.
Moynier's biggest gain was in one
city precinct where IS ballots were
excluded from the count because
they had not been properly initiated
by the inspector of elections. In this
number, 20 votes were lost to Tied
man and seven to Moynier, while
some of the ballots contained no
votes for commissioner. In another
city precinct, however, Tie d m a n
gained five votes and Moynier lost
four.
The precinct excluded from the
recount was the third precinct in the
first ward, Judge Jansonius ruling
that 1t could easily have been posi-
BILE for anyone to have tempered with
these ballots. Ballots from the Sec
ond precinct of the first ward were
accepted on testimony by William A.
Falconer, election inspector, who
identified them to the satisfaction of
the court.
Moynier's contest collapsed, it was
made clear by his attorney, when ex-
animation showed that Moynier had
received more votes on absent voters
ballots cast in city precincts than
had Tiedman. In the precincts re-
counted, 173 absent voters ballots
were cast and of this number So were
cast for Moynier and II for Tied
man.
Scott Cameron, Moynier's attorney,
had intimated to the court that he
particularly desired to challenge the
absent voters ballots and was pre-
pared to launch an effort to show
that they were not cast by persons
who were properly voters.
Under a ruling of the supreme
court such votes as were invalidated
would have been excluded but, since
it would be impossible to show for
whom they were cast, the deduction
would have been made on a pro-rata
basis. Hence, had Tiedman received
three-fourths Of the votes cast on
absent voters ballots, he would have
lost three of every four ballots ex-
cluded from the recount.
When 1t appeared, however, that
Moynier had received more absent
voters ballots than Tiedman, the
case collapsed because the percentage
feature then would have worked the
other way.
AS result Of the recount, Tiedman
will take office at the first meeting
Of the county board in January. The
procedure will be for the old board
to clean up pending business. Then
Tiedman will be indicted into office
and the board will be reorganized.