Show TilE ISSUE TODAY Resume of the Pending Cases Before Judge Bartch Today in Judge Bartchs branch of the Third district court the cases of Kimball and McFarland of Weber county Smith and Emery of Salt Lake county Page et al of Sanpete county and Gibbs et al of Box Elder county vs the Utah commission wiii be argued ar-gued The issue comes up on several writs of prohibition and mandate and as allure all-ure identical the several suits will be argued and submitted at one time As far as The Herald is able to ascertain as-certain the points at issue are these First What are the powers and duties du-ties of the Utah commission in the Premisesthat is must the commission I t canvass the returns In person or must it delegate this power to a canvassing board 1 I j SecondIf such canvassing board is I Ito be appointed shall one only be named to handle the returns from all the counties or shall a board in each county be named and the returns sent to them I Third = What constitutes the returns What discrepancies and irregularities irregulari-ties and when if at all must the canvassers can-vassers resort to the ballot boxes to determine results These are all legal questions which can be determined without any eon filet of evidence and from the records cf the commission and the members thereof and the court will be called upon to decide these issues and none others Without attempting to try the case before it reaches the eminent jurist who will sit in judgment The Herald will cite the law bearing upon the mat ter at issue in order to allow its readers read-ers a range for speculation The enabling act approved July 16 1894 authorized and required the Utah commission to cause a registration of voters in the territory to be made Under the provisions of the laws 08 the United States and the territory and also provided that the election for delegates to the proposed conven tion should be conducted the returns made the result ascertained and the certificates of persons elected to such convention issued in the same manner asJs prescribed by the laws of the territory regulating the elections there in of members of the legislature The commission performed its duty in making this registration Let us read further By act of the territorial legislature approved February 22 1878 chapter 9r volume I compiled laws of 18SS a provision pro-vision was enacted which provided for the registration of voters and the general gen-eral conduct of elections and also specified the qualifications of the office holders Under its provisions the judges of election are required to make their returns to the county clerk who in the presence of at least rae member of the county court whr s not a candidate is required to break the seals and carefully examine the returns If no irregularity or discrepancy appear ap-pear therein affecting the result of the election of any candidate they shal1 accept said returns as correct but if the right of any person voted for fol any office is in any way affected then the clerk and members of the count ourt shall open the ballots from sale precincts and canvass the same so fa i as to determine the rights of the per On whose office may be affected They may also cause to appear before them my person they may deem proper and take their testimony In relation tc said election in said precinct f Under the provisions of the Edmunds aw approved March 22 1882 all the egistration and election offices of every description were declared vacant and each any every duty relating to the registration of voters the conduct of Elections the receiving or rejection of votes and the canvassing and returning return-Ing of the same were required fo be performed under the existing laws of the United States and of the territory by proper persons who shall oe appointed to execute such offices and perform such duties by a board of five persons to be appointed by the President c The canvass and return of all the votes at elections in said territory for members the legislative assembly thereof shall also be returned to said board which shall canvass all such said returns and issue certificates of election to those persons I who being eligible for such election shall appear to have been lawfully elected which certificates shall be the only right of such persons to sit in said assembly Section 23 of the EdmundsTuckei law approved March 23 18S7 provided for the continuance of the above act regulating the powers of the Utah commission I It will be seen from the foregoing fore-going that the powers and duties du-ties previously Incumbent upon tin ounty clerIc are In cases of legislators and the same rule by the enabling ACt governs the election of constitutional constitu-tional delegates are vested directly in the Utah commission itself While all other matters pertaining Continued on Page 3 Ii I I I I < I Jl A MIU11 N KEY 1 Continued frothaga 1 o to registration and election rest with such persons as may be appointed by the commission this duty cannot Be delegated by them to anybody but must be performed a stated by the commission Pursuant o the statutes of the territory ter-ritory and the United States as also of the enabling act the commission caused the new registration to be made appointed the judges to conduct the election and the returns thereof are now in the hands of the board itself sel When it camp to canvass the returns re-turns the question of what constituted returns was rase and decided by the opinion of the attorneys both political polit-ical parties Hon P L Williams andO and-O W Powers of the Democrats and Hon C W Bennett and Judge Miner of the Republ1cthisto consist of the Republcstt qsist registry list used byv > th judges the poll lists being a list of Sailvoting and the tally sheets in dupli tIn t-In the course of the proceedings commission found that there were some irregularities and discrepancies in the returns from Sanpete Box Elder Weber and the Third precinct of Salt Lake city of such a character as might affect the election of delegates in those places respectively The discrepancies dis-crepancies amounted in Sanpete to 44 Box Elder 1 Weber 29 and Salt Lake 16 while the difference in the votes of the close candidates varied from 6 up to 50 Under these conditions itseemed necessary nec-essary at least to a majority of the commission to resort to the ballot boxes in order to determine who were legally elected The result of the examination of ten precincts in Sanpete county slowed that three Democrats had received more votes than an equal number of Republicans while in one poll of the Third precinct of Salt Lake a transposition transpo-sition of fifty votes was found to have been made At this juncture the suits which will be accrued today were brought That the commission will toe sutain ed no one who can read law understandingly under-standingly will doubt |