Evening star., 1941-01-11
Missouri Assembly Refuses
To Seat Republican Governor
Fraud Charge Probe
Voted in Hectic
AII-Night Session
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo, Jan. II.
The Democratic-controlled Cen
eral Assembly, in an uproarious all
night session, refused to certify For
rest c. Donnell, Republican, as Gov
ernor-elect and adopted resolu-
ton calling for joint House Sen
ate investigation of Democratic
charges of fraud" in the November
gubernatorial election.
The investigation would involve
opening the ballot boxes in every
county and the city of st. Louis.
The action will prevent Mr.. Dom
nell's scheduled Inauguration Mon
day and will keep Gov. Lloyd Stark,
Democrat, in Office until investiga-
ton of the election and hearing of
contest is completed.
Official returns gave Mr.. Donnell
a plurality of 3,613 votes over his
Democratic opponent, Lawrence E.
Mcdaniel.
Other Winners Certified.
The Assembly voted, 1O1 to 78, to
certify all of the apparent winners
in the November election, and a
few minutes later voted, 118 to 81,
to hear a contest petition filed by
James T. Blair of Jefferson City, a
Democratic county chairman.
The Democrats hold an 85-to-65
advantage in the House and a 28-
to-6 advantage in the Senate, CIV
ing them ll3 seats in the Assembly
to II Republicans.
Through the early morning hours
the Assembly wrangled over the
makeup of the joint House-Senate
committee that will investigate the
gubernatorial election-the Repub-
lican minority arguing for a BIZ
partisan committee, the Democrats
for one with a Democratic ma
jorlty.
Action of the Democratic majority
brought heated answers from the
Republican side.
You'll rue this day." Represent
ative o. B. Whitaker, Republican.
shouted. You can keep Donnell
out of the Governors chair, but
you'll put in a Republican in the
Governors chair in the next cleo
ton and the next and the next if
you do it,
Many Irregularities Charged.
In refusing to seat Mr.. Donnell
the Assembly followed recon-
mendations contained IN a report
submitted a few hours earlier by a
special joint committee consisting
of six Democrats and four Repub-
icanS.
The report, signed only by the
Democratic members, said the COM
mittee had found alleged mistakes
in the returns, been advised of va
rious irregularities, illegal votes
violations of the law" and
illegal use of money in connection
with the election"
1t also stated that in some of the
precincts at least one of the cleo
tlon judges refused to sign the re-
WI io oO tIldU lllcIe were no re-
turns certified in said precincts
upon which the county clerk could
make an official return
G. o. P. Senator Makes Denial.
Senator George A. Rozier, Repub-
lican spokesman, told the Joint
House-Senate session the report had
been handed to them on the basis
of sign it or get up a minority re-
port"
1--WE deny mistakes in the returns.
No mistake or evidence of irregu-
larity was called to the attention of
this committee. We canvassed the
ballots and found them regular.
Let's be fair about this thing.
You know and I know. that if the
situation were reversed this thing
would be different"
The galleries were crowded
throughout the long session, which
started at 4 pm. and continued
through the night with only an
hours break.