"Recount Completed" from the April 21, 1922 Door County Advocate
RECOUNT COMPLETED
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Mrs. McDonald's Lead Increased To Nine
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COUNCIL'S TEDIOUS TASK
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Most Serious Error In the Four Precincts Found In First Ward Which Changed Result On Alderman—Errors Found In All Ward Returns
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Sturgeon Bay's 1922 city election goes down in history as the longest drawn out contest ever held in the municipality. Not until ten days after the election, when a recount had been made for the office of mayor, treasurer, assessor and alderman of the first ward, were the majorities fully determined and the people satisfied. It was an election in which the vote was so close that an error of the election board could throw it to either of the leading candidates.
Harry Greene, candidate for alderman in the first ward, was the first candidate to make application for a recount. According to election returns he had been defeated by a vote of thirty votes by Frank J. Moeller. Due to the fact that on face of the returns it showed that a much smaller vote was cast for alderman in that ward than for the other offices, Mr. Greene felt that an error had been made by the election board, and asked for a recount.
The recount was made Thursday of last week by the 1rst ward election inspectors and the fact that 54 votes were found that had not been counted when the returns were made, and they all being for Mr. Greene, which changed the result on election of alderman, made other candidates feel that there had been gross carelessness, and for the purpose of clearing up the situation and removing all doubt that might otherwise exist, John Boler, candidate for mayor, Wm. Stephan, candidate for treasurer, and H. Martin Hanson, candidate for assessor, all made application for a recount. Attorneys then ruled that the law required the council to make the recount, and not inspectors of the different precincts.
On Friday evening, the tenth day after election, and the last on which a recount could be made, the council met at 7:30 o'clock and started the recount, it taking until four o'clock Saturday morning to complete the work. Result of the recount was as follows:
The recount for mayor was called for in but the second and third wards. In the 1rst ward James G. Martin increased his vote from 449 to 454, a gain of 5; and the vote for Mr. Boler remained the same, 187. In the third ward, the recount gave Mr. Martin 286 votes, loss of two votes from the original count; and Mr. Boler 163, a gain of one. These corrected figures give Mr. Martin a majority in the city of 264 over Mr. Boler.
The greatest interest centered on treasurer, the returns on election night giving Mrs. Lillian McDonald a majority of but one over William Stephan in a three-cornered contest. In the recount Mrs. McDonald lost her lead of one in the first ward to be counted, ward one, the vote for her being 365 in place of 366. The vote on the other two candidates remained the same, Stephan 180 and Meverden 79. The count of the second ward vote however brought Mrs. McDonald back into the lead by ten votes, an error of five votes being found in both her and Mr. Stephan's count, Mrs. McDonald gaining five and Mr. Stephan losing a like number. Mr. Meverden also lost one in this ward on the recount. In the third ward Stephan gained three and Mrs. McDonald one, and Mr. Meverden seven. In the fourth ward there was no change in Mrs. McDonald's vote, but Mr. Stephan gained one, as did also Mr. Meverden. The final result of the recount gave Mrs. McDonald a majority of nine over Mr. Stephan, she having gained eight votes over the report as returned by the election boards of the different wards.
In the recount for assessor Henry Reynolds gained three votes in the first ward; Ben DeFaut one vote, and Mr. Hanson's remained the same. Mr. Reynolds' vote remained the same in the second ward, Mr. DeFaut gained three; and Mr. Hanson lost two. In the third Reynolds gained two; DeFaut four, and Hanson three. Mr. Hanson waived a recount of the votes cast for assessor in the Fourth ward.
Recount of the vote for alderman in the first ward resulted the same as the recount made Thursday of last week, Harry Greene 321 and Frank Moeller 296, Mr. Greene being elected by a majority of 25.
The recount brought out the following facts:
In ward two, 3 more ballots were found than the poll list called for. In ward three, one more ballot, and in ward four, 5 more ballots than called for in the poll list. The election boards evidently did not count the ballots to see if they tallied with the number of names on the poll list.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
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