1 6o
THE GREEN BAG
election laws, to procure the commission of divers and sundry illegal and fraudulent practices, to pollute the purity of the ballot box and thereby frustrate the will of the lawful voters of the City and County of Denver and in turn frustrate the will of the people of the State of Colorado. The bill disclosed a history of gross, outrageous frauds and illegal practices in Denver elec tions for a number of years resulting in the practical disfranchisement of the lawful voters, and that the officials who were then and who would be in charge of the election machinery on November 8 represented the same political party and were in fact sub stantially the same individual officials who had connived at, procured, aided and abetted in the perpetration of the frauds and illegal practices at prior elections. The bill further alleged that the election officials had know ingly and fraudulently caused the registra tion books and lists to be padded with fictitious names to the number of at least 10,000 with the object of causing lawless and vicious persons to vote under such fictitious registrations by repeating, person ating and the like. The gravamen of the bill, in short, was that unless the injunctive relief prayed for -was granted, the state would be powerless to prevent the violation of its own election laws, or thereafter succeed in punishing the violators of such laws through the ordinary criminal processes of the state, because of the existence of such widespread local official conspiracy, not only to frustrate the will of the lawful voters, but, in addition, to shield from conviction or punishment the individuals and instrumentalities employed to debauch the ballot box, thereby inflicting irreparable wrong and injury to the state in its sovereign capacity and as the protector of the liberties of its citizens. On the sth of November the court ordered that the relief be granted as prayed. Ac cordingly a "Writ of Injunction and Order for Additional Relief" issued, the injunction being directed against the precinct judges
and clerks of election, the sheriff, the fire and police board, the local canvassing board and others, in substance as follows: it en joined any interference with or prevention of a free, fair, open and lawful election; it enjoined the exclusion from the polling places of the judge of election appointed by the minority republican member of the elec tion commission; it commanded the sheriff and fire and police board to issue strict and imperative orders to all deputies and mem bers of the police force to protect the re publican judges, clerks, watchers and chal lengers of election in the discharge of their duties, and to be prompt and diligent to prevent as far as possible any act of force, fraud or artifice designed to interfere with the exercise of the duties of said officers, and to assist them to serve freely and unobstructedly until their duties were completed; it commanded the subordinate members of the police force individually to carry out the terms of the order, any other instruc tions or directions, official or unofficial, not withstanding; it enjoined the judges of election from so arranging the polling places as to prevent the watchers and challengers from getting a full and unobstructed view of every act performed by the judges of election from the opening of the polls until the last official act was performed, and from causing or permitting to be removed from the polling places, any ballot boxes, official records, minutes or memorandums so that they might not at every instant of time be in the un obstructed view of the watchers and chal lengers of the republican party; it ordered that to the end that the court might more fully guard the purity of the election, the court would appoint two persons for each precinct to be suggested to the court by the petitioners, and approved by the court, said persons to be known as "supreme court watchers," who should have power to be and remain at all times during the election at the polling place, inside or outside the guard rail, to witness all proceedings until the sealing of the ballot boxes, and to
