Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1886 — It Succeeds Admirably [ARTICLE]

It Succeeds Admirably

The new Method greatly Favored bv the People, and a Splendid Ticket Nominated. The fairness, wisdom and popularity of the new method of nominating the county officers has been fully established, by the result of last Thursday afternoon. The weather was most unfavorable? tlie rain falling in torrents daring much of the afternoon, and this had the effect of keeping great numbers of voters away from the mass conventions, and the only wonder is that the vote was so large. Very nearly 800 votes were cast throughout the county, or almost two thirds of the entire Republican vote of the county. It is safe to had the day been' favorable, the entire vote would have fallen but little short of 1,200. The, method gives the masses of the party a full chance to make their preferences felt, and they •appreciate and avail themselves of the opportunity.

By the conditions of the method any candidate who received a majority of the popular vote over all of his competitors, was nominated thereby. Tlie final count showed that, by this rule, candidates were nominated Thursday for all the offices except Treasurer and County Commissioner, For Clerk and Sheriff there was no opposition to the present incumbents, and they both received the unanimous vote of the mass conventions. For Auditor there were- three excellent and popular men in the field, and it is a surprising demonstration of the great personal popularity of the present incumbent, as well as of the strong disposition that exists among the people to reward a faithful and efficient officer with a second term, that Mr. Robinson’s total vote lacked but a single one of being exactly three times as great a& that of his leading competitor, and exceeded the combined vote of both of his competitors by two to one, with 80 votes to spare. Mr. Robinson carried every township except Gillarn and Mheatfield, both of which were carried by Mr. Wood; Gillam by a large, and Wheatfield by a very small majority. For Treasurer, as was to be expected from so many candidates, no one had a majority over all. Washburn was tar ahead of all others, with 294 votes, or exactly twice as many as his leading comp t tor Mr. Powell, who had 147. Mr. Burk, with 89 votes, was third in

the list. Washburn received the largest vote in the eight townships of Hanging Grove, Gillam, Barkley, Walker, Marion, Keener, Kankakee and Union. Powell was ahead in Carpenter and Milroy townships, Burk in Wheatfield, Waymire in Jordan, and Benjamin in Newton. The vote on Recorder was a fair counterpart and fully as surprising as that for Auditor. As was- the case For Auditor, three good men •were in the field,, but the present incumbent, Mr. Antrim, who ran, according to a common comparison made by th e ruder people, “like a bay steer with grubs in bis back,” had very nearly three times as many votes as his leading opponent, and twice as many as both the others with 106 votes to spire. He carried every township except Gillam, and there it was an even standoff between him and Mr. Coppess.

For Coroner there was no opposition to Mr. Blue, and he received: all the votes except some 50 which were scattering. For surveyor the only opponent of Mr. Thrawls, the present incumbeut, was A. M. Munden, of Union township, who came out as a candidate only a week be fore the mass conventions. Thrawls' vote was 533 to 160 for Munden. For OofflinissicnerJkere was no formal candidate,' and the vote ran wild, so to speak, and votes were cast for a dozen different pien. Cff these Mr. Nichols, the present Commissioner, received 218, and J. F Watson, of, Marion township,

was second, -with 115 votes. The work of choosing the delegates to the county convention was done at the mass conventions with great care and wisdom. Intelligent, fair minded men, and represenative Republicans were selected, everywhere, and great care taken Tn wvery iownahip *n make thats choice of delegates in such a man-’ Her as to give to every locality as full ft representation as its number of Republican voters would entitle it to. Below is the result of the popular ballot for choice of candidates for the county offices: