Evening star., 1935-02-24
ESQ ILLEGAL VOTES
ALLEGED IN PLEA
Montgomery Recount Peti.
ton Claims "IrreguIari-
ties" in Election.
sya staff CORRESPONDENT of The Star.

ny Staff Correspondent of The Star.
ROCKVILLE. Md, February rs
Charges that more than 280 votes
were enormously counted in the Sec
ond and third commissioner contests
during the Montgomery County cleo
ton on November are contained in
amendments to the original recount
petitions of John B. Diamond and
Raleigh S. Chinn, defeated Demo-
cratic candidates, filed in Circuit
Court today.
The errors resulting from irregulari-
ties, in which voters and officials
participated at the polls, the amend
ments state, changed the entire COM
pletion of the election, which cost the
Democratic organization control of
the County Board.
Permission to amend the original
documents, in which Diamond and
Chinn seek a recount of the election
in which they were defeated for the
County Board by Charles E. King and
Frank H. Karn, was obtained by
Joseph A. Cissel, attorney for the
two Democrats, in a hearing in the
Circuit Court at Frederick last Satur-
day.
Would Clarity Charges.
Cissel asked for the permission an
order to clarity the charges contained
in his original petitions and show how
the alleged irregularities affected the
outcome of the contests in which
Diamond lost to King by 81 votes and
Karn defeated Chinn by 247 ballots.
Cissel, in the amendments filed to-
day. charged that more than 200
illegal ballots were counted for the
two Fusion commissioners which
should have been discarded because
the voters marked their ballots for
six commissioner candidates. The law,
he claimed. 'contemplates the elec-
ton of five county commissioners
only"
The attorney for Chinn and Dia-
mond had made the same assertion
in his original petition, but demurrer
filed against the charge by attorneys
for King and Karn was sustained
some time ago by the county on the
ground that the paragraph in which
it was contained was not drafted
properly.
Clarksburg District Named.
In addition the amendments set
forth that an alleged irregularity in
the Clarksburg district polling place
cost Diamond and Chinn many
votes" while King and Karn received
= ~ chnItll hove
been counted for them.
The petition charged that the Re-
publican judge in that polling place
read all of the ballots cast in that dis
trict and refused permission to the
Democratic judge and the challengers
Of both parties to either read or ex-
anime them.
Irregularities in Darnestown district
gained for King and Karn Is votes
they should not have received, Cissel's
amendments asserted, while it also
was said that five ballots that bore
Identification marks were counted for
the two Fusion nominees in the sec
ond precinct Of Rockville district.
Faulty Count Alleged.
It vas also asserted that Diamond
and Chinn lost more than so bal
lots" through election officials through
out the county failing to count on one
Of the talley sheets whenever differ
ences occurred between the talley
sheets of the clerks
The petition explained that when
ever such discrepancies occurred they
were corrected by omitting the count
on one of the sheets until the sheets
of the various clerks showed an iden-
tical number of votes.
Diamond and Chinn seek through
their suits to have the ballots cast in
81 of the county's 80 polling places
/, recounted. They charge that the ir-
. regularities which resulted in their
defeat occurred in all of the precincts
, except the second, fourth, fifth, sixth.
seventh. eighth and ninth precincts of
! Wheaton district and the first, Sec
ond, fourth and fifth precincts OF Be-
5 thesda district.