The Ironton News

A LOOK OVER THE
POLITICAL FENCE
By The Man On The Other
Side.

Frank and Herb got together yesterday.
Wonder if Homer and Everett
can get together?
If not, maybe Bill and Roscoe?
or Pearl and Joe?
Of course you don't know what
we are talking about. Neither do we.
They say Tom and John got together before the election-at least their representatives did.
It is understood that the Republican
factions want to give those
parts of Lawrence county that went
Democratic to Gallia and Jackson
counties.
Most any man can get his name
in the paper now days by making
some statement about beer.
A well-laid plan that went all
awry is being told as one of the
best post-election stories on record
--in Cincinnati at least. It was this
way;
When the Ohio Legislature passed
a law eliminating presidential electors from the ballot at presidential
elections and placing the names of
candidates for President and Vice
President at the head of the ticket,
there was much speculation as to
how this might contravene the United States Constitution.
Many constitutional lawyers insisted that the Federal Constitution
requires that voters shall cast their
ballots for presidential electors,
which must appear on the ticket.
The mere filing of them with the Secretary of State not being sufficient.
It was decided, therefore, that if
the Ohio election should be close,
and being a pivotal state, there
would be ground for declaring the
election invalid. To that end it was
decided to have someone write in his
or her name on the ballot, as a presidential elector on the Republican
ticket, so that, being elected by the
one vote, he might take the matter
into the courts for a decision.
This arrangement was made, and
"John Jones" was selected to turn
the trick by writing his own name
in on his ballot, giving himself a
vote as a presidential elector, and
qualifying him to make the contest
if one was decided upon.
Everything was lovely, all was set
so there could be no hitch if a contest was needed.
No? Well, now they are
asking
if there is anything certain except
death and taxes.
With the election over, amid
a
great landslide of votes, naturally
no contest was even considered, but
those who had arranged matters,
looked around to see mention of the
one vote for "John Jones" for
presidential elector. It did not appear in the precinct vote count, so
the Republican Judge of that pre-
cinct was called upon and asked
why "John Jones" did not vote, or
if he did, why wasn't his vote counted?
The answer came in an explosion
from the election official. Consider-
ably deleted it was:
Hell, yes, he voted, but that
blankety-blank, blinkering idiot voted for himself for President, instead of
for elector.