Evening star., 1945-10-01
Virqiniu Election

Judge Julien Gum Of the Rich
mond City Circuit Court, while pay
ing tribute to the "high character
and unimpeachable integrity" of the
two men involved in the contest
over Virginia's Democratic nomina-
ton for the lieutenant governor
ship, has decided that dispute in
favor of Lewis Preston Collins, who
had been defeated in the recent
primary by Charles r. Fenwick of
Arlington.
To accomplish this Judge Gum
threw out all of the more than $500
votes cast in Wise County, which
had given Mr.. Fenwick plurality
of 3,185. Since the latter's margin
of victory in the August primary
was only 572 votes, the rejection of
the Wise County ballots makes Mr..
Collins the nominee. Mr.. Fenwick
had challenged the vote for his op-
ponent in several counties, and in
vestigatio disclosed that a number
of "illegal" votes had been cast for
Mr.. Collins, but the total of these
was not sufficient to offset the effect
of the invalidation of the Wise
County returns,
This, to say the least, has been
an unusual case. Mr.. Fenwick, who
had represented Arlington County
in the State Legislature for num-
ber of years, and who was well
known in Washington as a patent
lawyer, former assistant football
coach at the University Of Maryland
and as member of the Touchdown
Club, was supposed to have but little
chance to win the Virginia primary.
AS the result of a vigorous State
wide campaign, however, he nosed
out his opponent and was declared
to be the partyis nominee. Then
came the disclosures of fraud and
irregularities in Wise County.
The supporters of Mr. Collins
were able to establish that 338
fraudulent votes-not enough to
change the result of the election
had been cast for Mr.. Fenwick in
Pound precinct. But it developed
that in addition to this some un-
identified person had stolen twenty
five poll books from the Wise
County clerks office-a circum-
stance which apparently led Judge
Gum to the conclusion that the
entire election in the county was
so impregnated with fraud that all
of the votes should be thrown out
Thus, as the result of an almost
childishly obvious fraud in one pre-
cinct and the suspicious circum-
stance of the stolen poll books, the
entire vote in the county was de-
clared void, and Mr.. Collins becomes
the party's nominee instead of Mr..
Fenwick.
This result, while it has been ac-
cepted by Mr.. Fenwick with good
grace, leaves much undone. The
culprits, whether supporters of Mr..
Fenwick or merely enemies of Mr..
Collins, remain unidentified and
unpunished. Furthermore, an un-
determined number of honest and
qualified voters in Wise County
have been deprived of voice in
the selection of the party's candi-
date. Despite the theft of the poll
books, which are supposed to list
the names of those who actually
voted, the real vote in the county
might have been verified on the
basis of the registration books and
the list of those who had paid their
pcu taxes. There was no effort by
either side to do this in the pro-
ceedings before Judge Gum, but it
is possible, though not probable,
that the Wise County grand jury
now investigating the election, or
some other agency in the State, will
inquire into this phase of the mat
ter in connection with the attempt
to identify the person or persons