On the other
hand the sitting member claimed that there were 341 votes
illegally thrown for the contestant, and of those Cessna admitted
that 81 had proved to be illegal. So the Committee were obliged
to examine by itself the evidence in regard to the right to
vote of each of several hundred persons.
The case turned finally on some very interesting questions
of the law of domicile. It appeared that a considerable
number of persons who were entitled to vote, if they were
resident of the district where they voted, were workmen employed
in the construction of a railroad. They had come from outside
the district for that purpose alone, and had no purpose of
remaining in the district after the railroad should be completed,
and meant then to get work wherever they could find it, there
or elsewhere. There were also a number of votes cast by students
who had gone to college for the purpose of getting an education,
having no design to remain there after their studies terminated.
Still another class of voters whose right was in dispute,
were the paupers abiding in the public almshouse, and maintained
in common by a considerable number of townships and parishes.
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