Show UTAH OOTOTY ELECTION CASE Of all the crimes that can be perpetrated per-petrated against a free people that which undertakes to defeat their expressed ex-pressed will is the most contemptible and the one which of all others is calculated cal-culated to arouse just indignation This arises from the fact that the expressed ex-pressed will of the people under the forms and to the extent prescribed by I constitutions and laws is the sovereign power of the state and if that is to be defeated by fraud or overthrown by trickery the very fountain of democratic demo-cratic government is corrupted I Because the crime is so grave an offense I of-fense it ought not to be charged without with-out good evidence it ought not to be assumed but upon the best of proof it ought not to be determined on ex parte evidence but upon the closest and mose careful investigation Both political parties should be looked upon as equally interested in exposing election elec-tion frauds for the party temporarily benefited by a fraudulent election can least of all afford to profit by it as it always looses more in the end than it can possibly gain Election frauds were charged in Utah county last fall and there is pending before the legislature a contest con-test for three seats in that body from Utah county Evidence has been taken in these cases belfore special Commissioner Commis-sioner Dudley at Provo and a very full synopsis of the evidence in the I I several cases appeared in the local columns of The Herald yesterday According Ac-cording to the evidence it seems that the Republicans based their charge of fraud on three things FIrstRepublican votes were rejected on account of being put in the wrong box boxThe The summary of the evidence on that I head is as follows At poll No 1 in Lehi there were three state ballots in the county boxtwo Republican and one Democratic As there were enough I ballots without these to tally with theI I voted list they were not counted neither the Democratic nor Republican I vote At poll 2 in Lehi there were I fiv < sfntp Vinllotn fonnr in the rnnntv u n n box two straight Democratic and two straight Republican ballots and one ballot with all the candidates scratched except Bartch Wells and Ohipman These ballots were not counted At Highland precinct one state ballot bal-lot was found in a county box it was straight Republican and counted At Pleasant Grove there were two straight Republican state ballots found in the city box They were counted At American Fork there were two straight Republican state ballots found in city box They were not counted At Provo First ward there was one straight Democratic state ballot found in the city box It was not counted In Provo Second ward there was one state ballot straight Democratic found In the city box not counted In Provo Third ward there were three state ballots found In city box two straight Republican and one straight Democratic They were all counted In aprlnjrville there was one Republican Republi-can state ballot scratched by pasting the name of W M Roylance over the names of J F Bringhurst J T Thorn and J C Graham in such a manner as to completely obliterate the name of I Thorn and as far obliterate the names of Graham and Bringhurst as to make them completely unrecognizable The ballot was counted for Roylance and all the Republicans except Thorn An analysis of the foregoing aside from Springville case shows that out of 17 state ballots found in county or city boxes 9 of them were thrown out and 8 of them counted Of the number rejected 5 were Democratic votes and 4 Republican ballots Of the 8 state ballots found in city or county boxes 7 of them were Republican Republi-can ballots and 1 Democratic As to the one scratched ballot at Sprlngville I found in the wrong box one Democrat was counted on it and all the Republicans Repub-licans except Thorn From these mistakes mis-takes in voting the Republicans gained more than the Democrats SecondIllegal Democratic votes were allowed to be cast The evidence on this head shows the following to be the facts As regards < the illegal voting the only proof made by the Republicans was against Eli Ribinson Thomas Lloyd jr Bphraim Rowe E S Cow ley John N Pike and Jonas Schow Robinson was born and reared in Spanish Span-ish Fork and has a home and blacksmith black-smith shop there and pays taxes thereon there-on has a wife and tamily and for about a year and a half has been working work-ing for another Spanish Fork manat Mammoth He has worked for wages by the day as a blacksmith has never voted anywhere else but Spanish Fork and holds his place there as a residence resi-dence Lloyd It turns out did not vote the state ticket but Republicans swore he did The fact is his name waS not on the state registration list At any rate he is a Spanish Fork boy born and reared there his parents reside there now he is unmarried and makes Spanish Span-ish Fork his home when not off at work for wages The same facts are true as regards Rowe except Chat Rowe voted the state ticket E S Cowley married a Provo girl lived In Provo until a sh ort time before the election when he went away to find work taking his young wife with him leaving his household furniture furni-ture and a large portion of their wearing wear-ing apparel at their home in Provo The things are here at present and Cowley is at present in Salt Lake with his wife occupying furnished rooms His absence from Provo is considered by his wifes mother and stepfather as only temporary John W Pike was prior to the 4th day of January this year official stenographer sten-ographer of the First district court He had his office room in the court house building in Provo upto that date carried car-ried the key and had sole control of said office Just a few days before the I election he moved his family to Salt I Lake City but he himself continued in I Provo performing his official duties visiting his family occasionally as his I duties would permit Schow lived in Lehi has a house and lot there and furniture in the house also has cows and horses in Lehi being taken care of by his brother For the last five or six months he has been working in Mercur ThirdIt is claimed that no proper notice was given of the election and f therefore it is claimed that the returns re-turns should be rejected The evidence I evi-dence on this head Is as follows The church people decided not to permit the poll to be opened In the church In the village and therefore polls were opened in a private house a short distance dis-tance away and every man entitled to vote did so except two who were away and they are reported to be Democrats It cannot be alleged that the Republicans Republi-cans in Mapleton were not permitted to vote they voted Ibises the Utah case and we leave the people of Utah to judge if the following fol-lowing remark from the Salt Lake Tribune Tri-bune is justified by the facts The developments of fraud and irregularities ir-regularities at the Utah county election elec-tion as drawn out by the testimony the taking of which was concluded at Provo yesterday are appalling they I show a rotten state of affairs such as could not possibly exist under any other circumstances than that such an odorous body as the Utah commission II commis-sion should have the ultimate say |