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to have entered an appropriate order transferring the criminal case against the petitioner to McHenry or Renville counties. In the application it is stated that the petitioner is forty-seven years old, and an attorney at law; that he was a candidate for nomination to the office of judge of the district court of the fifth judicial district at the primary held in June, 1920; that he was then duly nominated for such office; that at the general election held November 22, 1920, he, together with one Geo. H. Moellring, received the plurality of all votes cast for such office; that at such election the Honorable K. E. Leighton and the Honorable F. E. Fisk, now district judges, were candidates and received a less number of votes than those cast for the plaintiff and said Moellring; that the petitioner is qualified by law to assume the office of district judge on the first Monday of January, 1921, and will and intends to qualify and as- sume such office on the said date. The petition, with the affidavits attached, also states that by reason of the prejudice of the trial judge, and of the people of Ward county, and of the fifth judicial district, the plaintiff cannot, within such judicial district, have a fair and impartial trial. That he demands that the cause be transferred for trial to an adjoining county and judicial district, to wit: to McHenry county or to Renville county. That during the political campaign the candidacy of the petitioner was bitterly assailed by his opponents, and to his best knowledge and his belief of the filing of the charges against him was solely for political purposes; that the petitioner is entirely innocent of the charge, and that the removal of the place of trial so great a distance from Minot, to Ramsey county, would seriously and greatly inconvenience the plaintiff. On November 23, 1920, the matter came on for hearing before this court. The defendant filed a motion to quash and also separate returns. The clerk of the district court, in his return, states that he has forwarded to the clerk of Renville county certified copies of the records in the criminal case pending against the petitioner. The Honorable K. E. Leighton, in his return, denied any knowledge of the jury having been called in McHenry county in the month of November or in Renville county, and alleges that the regular term of court in Renville county is not set until January. Further, he denies that political opposition framed the charge involved, or that the complaining witnesses were induced to make such accusation either in the hope of reward or otherwise, and further he states that the transfer was made where trial could be had at the earliest opportunity, where the train service is excellent, the hotel service good, and a jury already impaneled; that the hotel accommodations are inconvenient at