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Show MAY BE A CONTEST IH SCHOOL ELECTION Race Between Dr. Edward I. Rich and H. H. Henderson Hender-son Is Very Close. Special to The Tribune. OGDEN. Dpi. 7. Due to tha close race run by Dr. Ed v a rd I . Rich an rl H . H. Henderson, candidates for the board of education in the Fourth ward, and apparent ap-parent Irregularities by the Judges in counting the ballots, a contest may result re-sult over the school election held in this lily yesterday. It is contended by those concerned that a possible contest cannot affect any ward other than the Fourth, t where Dr. Rich was elected by a majority of eleven votes, according to the unofficial unoffi-cial returns. The controversy has resulted frorn the failure oi' six election judges who worked in the ward to comply with the strict letter of the law pertaining to the elimination elimi-nation of ballots in excess of the number of people voting, tills to be governed by the names on t he poll books. As near as can he determine:! at this time, an excess of nineteen votes were counted, although this is based on the names written writ-ten into the poll books and not on the names checked off in the registration lists. Under tho law, the judges of a school election are required to count the total number of ballots cast, ascertain if the number corresponds to the total of names on the poll books and destroy any excess, ex-cess, these to be drawn at random from the entire supply of voted ballots. The judges in, the Fourth ward, six in number, num-ber, seem to have made their first mistake mis-take when they counted the total number num-ber of envelopes containing the ballots instead of conning the actual number of ballots after removing the same from the envelopes. In removing the ballots the Judges found several instances wrhere two or more ballots bal-lots for the same candidate had' been placed in an envelope, and in all cases where such a discovery was made all but one ballot were thrown out. In view of the result, the possibility now presents itself that several of these cases of incorrect in-correct voting were unintentionally overlooked over-looked by the judges. The check of the poll books showed that 1 439 people had voted, while the count showed 1450 envelopes on hand. In what they believed to be compliance with the law. the judges removed eleven envelopes from the mass of votes and laid them aside, thus equalizing the numher of envelopes and the numher of persons voting. vot-ing. After the ballots had been removed from the remaining envelopes and the tallv completed, the result showed a total of 1447 votes, or still eight in excess of the number of names on the lists. Because, of the closeness of the race, the judges decided to count in the eleven votes originally laid aside, and here, it is alleged, they made their second mistake. mis-take. The eleven votes showed seven for Henderson and four for Dr. Rich, mak-' h J Ing the total unofficial count stand. Dr. Rich 729, Henderson 718 and Swarts-4w Swarts-4w fager 11. a total of HfiS. or nineteen in excess of the number of persons voting. |