An 1880s template for ongoing ongoing ongoing "recount" of Arizona ballots from 2020.

 

 

“Miller Ragsdale, who is a notorious card sharp handled the ballots, and as I knew his reputation I watched him. The first colored voter offered his ballot a few minutes after the polls opened. Ragsdale, to my astonishment began to open the ballot, and as he opened it he slipped from his sleeve another Republican ballot and held up the two ballots and exclaimed: ‘the black rascal is trying to vote a folded ballot!’

“Thereupon the Democrats gathered around, with hands in their hip pockets, and said they did not intend to have Mahone methods adopted there. Ragsdale said he would open every colored man's ballot thereafter, and whenever a colored voter appeared he did open his ballot and expose it. I protested against this and told him that the law guaranteed a secret ballot. He said he knew the law and did not want any Republican advice, and continued all day to open the colored men's ballots. Runners were posted outside to warn colored men that their ballots would be known and their employment taken away if they voted the Republican ticket.

“The judges then proceeded to conduct the election according to their plan. No Republican voter was allowed to vote who had been absent thirty days in the last twelve months, although their homes and families were there, while Democrats were allowed to vote who had been absent two years. Colored voters who had always lived and voted there were told that they had been transferred to precincts twenty-five or thirty miles distant, although they protested that they had never heard of the precinct and could not get there. Many were told that their names were not registered, although they had heretofore always voted there. The recently registered colored voters were all told that they did not look like they were of age, and on their offers to prove their age they were told they would not believe a negro on oath. Some were refused votes because their families were in Danville, while they worked at Chatham. Others were told they they could not vote at Chatham, although their families lived there, because they worked a month in Danville.

“Colored voters who had regular transfers from other precincts in the county were denied the right to vote because their transfers were not in proper form, although they were issued by Democratic registrars. These are only a few of the many outrages perpetrated, and I wrote every one of them down, giving names and acts, and forward the list to Petersburg last night.