The Wheeling Daily Register

THE STATE SENATORS.

A singular question, one which, to our knowledge, has never before arisen in this State, is presented, in determining who are elected State Senators from the First District. It appears on examination of the total vote of the District that Mr. A. M. Jacob has received 3403 votes; Mr. Pannell 3397; Mr. Cunningham 3305; and Mr. Wilson 3267. It would be natural to suppose that the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes would be declared elected, and that therefore Messrs. Jacob and Pannell, between whom there is only a difference of six votes in the whole number polled, would be entitled to seats in the Senate as representatives of this District. There is, however, a clause in the Constitution, nearly identical in both the old and the new, that declares that "Every district shall elect two Senators, but where the district is composed of more than one county both shall not be chosen from the same county." Messrs. Jacob and Pannell being both citizens of the same county, the question is, which, if either of the two, is elected?

It may be answered, The person receiving the greater number of votes. But before determining whether, in that case, the Senatorship should be awarded to Mr. Cunningham, who stands next below Mr. Pannell on the list, the following provision of the Code is to be taken into consideration. The 60th section of Chapter 3 (relating to "elections by the people") reads as follows:

"60. If two or more ballots be found folded or rolled together, and the names thereon be the same, all but one of them shall be destroyed; but if the names thereon be different, they shall both be destroyed. And if any ballot be found to contain more than the proper number of names for any office, that first on the ballot shall only be counted as to the said office. In any election for Senator, or delegate for a delegate district, if a person be voted for on any ballot who is not a resident of the proper county, as required by the fourth and eleventh sections of the fourth article of the Constitution, the ballot shall not be counted for the said office: or if two or more persons are to be chosen as delegates for a delegate district, or for two counties voting together, and it is required by the Constitution that they should be residents of the same county, the ballot shall not be counted in favor of either of said persons."

We do not know whether this section of the Code has ever been subjected to judicial interpretation and are at some loss to understand very clearly its meaning as applied to the present case. There were, undoubtedly, a number of ballots cast in this county for Pannell and Jacob as candidates for the State Senate, one of whom "is not a resident of the proper county." Now whether, in such cases, the first eligible name on the ballot should only be counted, or whether the entire ballot should be rejected does not very clearly appear. Notwithstanding Mr. Jacob has, in the District, six votes more than Mr. Pannell, the latter has in Ohio county, which is certainly entitled to one of the Senators, 365 more votes than Mr. Jacob, and has in the district 92 more votes than Mr. Cunningham, who stands next upon the list.

The question is a new and complicated one, and without attempting its decision in our own mind we leave it for discussion by those more versed in the interpretation and application of the law "in such cases made and provided."