The Double-Voting Scandal at the School Board

The law which says that no man shall vote twice at any election, and which many voters are ignorant of, specifically including school elections, was vindicated in a startling manner yesterday when a jury in Judge Hones’ court convicted Bob Johnston of voting twice at a school election. So great was the panic among his confederates, Patrick Flynn and Richard Long, who were also indicted with Johnston for violations of the same law at the same election, that they refused to be tried before the same jury. As there was but the one panel, Judge Hones refused to call a new one, and their cases were stricken from the trial calendar to be set for next month when a new jury will be empaneled.

The courtroom was crowded yesterday with a large delegation from the wards and numerous representatives from other wards of the city. Johnston was well supported by attorneys, including W. E. Crews, who was a candidate for school director at the same election. The case for the state was opened by C. A. Spriggs, until within the last few months a police officer, who testified he saw Johnston vote at the polling place at Third and Yesler, and that to his knowledge he also voted at the Front and Marion street polling place. Other witnesses testified to seeing Johnston around the polls. To explain, Johnston took the stand and made a general denial, claiming he spelled his name 'Johnston' and insisted a mistake had been made by some other Johnston. A large number of his friends took the stand to swear he only voted once, but the jury reached a verdict of guilty after a short deliberation.