THE LOUISVILLE CONTESTED ELECTION CASES
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THE LOUISVILLE CONTESTED ELECTION CASES BY PERCY WERE it not for the judgment of the Kentucky Court of Appeals declaring void the 1905 Louisville election, it must be admitted that the record of the Louis ville Contested Election Cases would go far to justify the prophesy of those who, at the institution of the American Govern ment, predicted its early downfall. We have in this record a story of shame which is hard to believe for one who has not come face to face with the facts. The recital of deeds of violence and of official oppression read like the dispatches from Warsaw or St. Petersburg, while the trick ery and fraud, supported by forgery and false swearing, indicate a degeneracy the continuance of which would be fatal to Republican government. But the courts of the land have once more justified the implicit confidence placed in them by the people and have added another honor to their splendid record. Prior to the year 1900 there was in force in Kentucky a notorious election law which took the name of its author and was known as the "Goebel law." Of that law a leading editor and publicist, in a letter which became public, said that it "left nothing to chance." Popular sentiment against that law was' so great, when its workings had become thoroughly understood and exposed, that the Governor of Kentucky, elected under that law, in a message dated the isth of August, 1900, called the legislature in special session to meet on August 28, 1900. In doing so he said: "I regard the occasion for the call as extraordinary, and I designate as the subject to be considered, by the General Assembly when it shall meet on the date aforesaid, the modification or amend ment of the existing law relating to elec tions in this State." The Legislature which met pursuant to
N. BOOTH this call radically changed the law and provided by an act of October 24th, 1900, that an action in equity might be instituted by a defeated candidate on the following terms : "In case it shall appear from an inspec tion of the whole record that there has been such fraud, intimidation, bribery, or violence in the conduct of the election that neither contestant nor contestee can be adjudged to have been fairly elected, the Circuit Court, subject to revision by appeal, or the Court of Appeals finally, may adjudge that there has been no election. In such event the office shall be deemed vacant, with the same legal effect as if the person elected had refused to qualify." The new statute placed the rights of the people above the rights of the rival candi dates and provided a clear statutory method for actively enforcing that section of the Kentucky Bill of Rights which pro vides that "all elections shall be free and equal." The Louisville Contested Election Cases were brought under this new statute. In spite of this legislation the 1903 elec tion in Louisville was flagrantly stolen by the Democratic machine . then in power. Fourteen polling places were secretly "moved" and in four other polling places the Republican officers were excluded or ejected by force. In these eighteen pre cincts, having a registration of over 4000 voters, the ballot boxes were stuffed at will, but it was found impossible to prosecute or convict the election offenders. Many citizens, irrespective of party, employed two prominent, public-spirited lawyers to prosecute the election thieves, but after eighteen months' labor they made a public report under date of March q, 1905, setting out the evidence submitted to the grand juries, and stating the impossibility of secur ing indictments and the refusal of the Commonwealth's Attorney to prosecute.
