Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1916 — LEGALITY OF KANSAS VOTE IS QUESTIONED [ARTICLE]

LEGALITY OF KANSAS VOTE IS QUESTIONED

Republicans Find Flaw in Fart That Ballots Were Cast For Presidential Candidates, Not Electors. Topeka, Kans., Nov. 9.—Charles H. Session, republican state chairman, announced today that legal counsel had been engaged to investigate the constitutionality of the electoral vote in Kansas. He could not say whether or not the vote would be contested. It was claimed at republican headquarters that the voters cast their ba’lots for the presidential candidates rutacr than for electors. The vote for electors this year was made for the group instead of for individual electors as in the past.- Republicans say that this manner of voting was unconstitutional.

" Before the ballots were prepared by the secretary of state, Attorney Gen ? eral S. M. Brewster gave out an opinion that the electors could be voted for as a group instead of individually. The ballots were prepared in this manner and there was only one square placed at the head of the list of electors, thus making it impossible to make an individual choice, it was asserted. «

Hubert Lardner, democratic* state chairman, says that the ballot is legal. He said the people voted their intentions and the secretary of state in Kansas has decided that the voters’ intention must prevail in such cases.