THE CANVASSING BOARD
The agony of the Canvassing
Board is very amusing. The mem
bers are Governor Scott C. Bone,
Karl Thiele, Surveyor General and
Secretary of Alaska, and M. S.
Whittier, Chief Deputy Collector of
Customs.
In their desire to prevent William
L. Paul from sitting in the next
Legislature, to which he was elected,
this Board is grasping at legal
straws hoping against hope that U
may find some legal excuse to throw
out enough votes to unseat him.
They, (excuse our use of the pro
nouns “it” and “they,” as we some
times think of the Board as a unit
and at other times as individual
members), remind us of a self-con
scious boy trying to get up courage
to ask his adored sweetheart the
fatal question.
Their trouble is that none of them
knows just what the reaction on the
part of citizens generally will be
and they lack nerve to do what they
most desire—to steal the election
from Paul, whom they cannot con
trol, in favor of J. J. Connors for
reasons which they well know.
This Board well exemplifies how
ignorant men in high public office
can be. The method which they
thought they could follow was simp
ly to act on J. R. Heckman’s affi
davit, throw out the Kasaan vote
and Paul would be out and Connors
in.
Cautious Scott Carpet Bone, how
ever, thought that by getting an
opinion from the Territorial Attor
ney General to that effect he could
“wash his hands” of the wrath that
will surely come. They really thought
they could go behind the returns. So
they propounded their questions:
1- Can the Canvassing Board take
cognizance and action on the affi
davits filed with it, showing that
at Kasaan the election board failed
to provide booths and privacy of
voting as required under sections
16 and 17, of Chapter 25, Session
Laws of 1915 ?
2. Were the judges at Angoon le
gally qualified under Section 397
Compiled Laws of Alaska since they
administered the oaths to themselves
and not one to the other?
3. Whether the Board has the
right to canvass individual ballots
and to allow inspection of them by
“interested parties.”
You can imagine the consternation
of the anxious Board when the At
torney General said. “The Territor
ial Canvassing Board has no right
or power to canvass individual bal
lots, and its duty is confined to the
purely clerical function of totalling
the vote cast at the various pre
cincts as certified by the judges of
election.”
Up to this time and indeed even
now the Board thinks its powers are
otherwise.
“Why cannot this Board count the
individual ballots?” Karl Thiele ask
ed. “Did not the Board do so in
1919? That was the only fair way
to handle the matter. It would be
only fair for this Board to do the
same thing-,” he continued.
Various Supreme Courts have ans
wered Thiele’s questions. Here are
some:
“The Canvassing- Board cannot de
termine what was done at an election
in a previous year.”
In re Hart, 161 N. Y. 507.
“The functions and duties of the
members of a board of canvassers
are purely ministerial.”
Shields vs. Van Horn, 2 Bart. 922.
“It is a common error for can
vassing- boards to overstep its pow
ers”
Lewis vs. Marshall County, Ky.
22 Am. Rep. 275.
“Their duty is a mere mechanical
or mathematical duty. They can
only compute the votes cast for the
several candidates that are duly
certified to them and declare the re
sult.”
Wells vs. Robertson (111.), 115
N. E. 654.
“The duty of the state canvassing
board is that of adding up the votes
received .... ascertaining the
total vote and declaring and certify
ing the result.”
Lansdown vs- State (Idaho)
111 Pac. 133.
Cannot Go Behind the Returns
“They have no power to go behind
the returns and ascertain the quali
fications of the voters, or otherwise
inquire into the regularity of the
election. It is settled beyond all
controversy that canvassers cannon
go behind the returns.”
20 Corpus Juris 202, citing 25
cases from many states.
Not Even For Fraud
“Fraud, bribery, violence or other
matters affecting- the regularity of
the election are to be passed on by
the proper tribunal and not by the
board of canvassers.
Kansas, Brown v. Jeffries, 22
P. 578.
Okla., Stearns v. Stat.e 100
P. 909.
“The canvassers are not author
ized to determine the legality or
illegality of the votes cast at the
election.”
Wells vs. Robertson (111.) 115
N. E- 654.
J. R. Heckman and his man Fri
day Stackpole went over to Kasaan
and were shocked to learn that the
45 voters had cast their ballots in
a large store and did not have the
“privacy of a booth” as required
by law. He now claims he did not
see the four Filipinos go to Precinct
No. 1 at Ketchikan in his own auto
mobile and vote for Heckman’s
“good government ticket” ( ?); nor
did Heckman see the three Demo
cratic watchers in the same precinct
challenging voters during the entire
(lay, coaching others openly and run
ning in and out of the voting booths
placing their sample Democratic bal
lots in the booths where not a
single one of these watchers had any
legal right to be, because none had
a “watchers certificate”; nor does
Heckman say anything about the
voting which was done out in the
open under the nose of the unlaw
ful Democratic watchers.
Oh, how Scott Thiele and Kail
Bone would like to throw Kasaan
out on the strength of Heckman's
affidavits.
Cannot Entertain Contest
“The canvassing board has no
power to summon witnesses or com
pel their attendance; nor would it
have the power to hear the evidence
of witnesses who volunteered their
attendance; nor has it power to hear
affidavits, or any proof of any char
acter upon which any action or de
cision could be based.”
Kartz v. Greene County Bd. of
Canvassers, 12 Abb. N. Cas. 84
(N. Y.);
State Mont. v. Chateau County
Bd. of Canv. 32 P. 879.
“The Board cannot (even) enter
tain a contest of the election.”
Harris v. Perryman (Ga.) 30
S. E. 663.
But Karl Bone thinks if they can
not throw Kasaan out, then out with
Angoon, for there each judge swore
himself into office- Angoon is the
precinct to which V. A. Paine, Com
missioner at Juneau, forgot (?) to
send official ballots, but the Indians
at Angoon fooled designing Paine
and made their own official ballots.
“Where the election judges did not
appear to be sworn, the committee
(of Congress) adhered to the ruling
in Barnes v. Adams and held that
it was not imperative that officers
should be sworn where there was
no fraud.”
2 Bart. 907.
Scott C. Bone, et al, believe in ma
jority rule all right providing he is
in the majority.
He is putting up a great fight
for Democratic Conners. Question:
When is it right for a Republican
Governor to support a Democrat?
l.et Republican Governor Bone an
swer.
BANK BUYS ANCHORAGE TIMES
The Anchorage Times became
bankrupt as must even those papers
which are serving the interests and
are run without a moral code and
was purchased by the Bank of Alas
ka for interested parties.
A new company, the Anchorage
Times Publishing Co., has now been
incorporated, capitalized at $30,000,
one-half of which is paid up.
It is to be hoped that this reor
ganization means at least one inde
pendent daily paper in the Terri
tory.