University of Virginia Library

'Botched Election'

He said, "This election was botched, but it
was botched in such a way that everyone was
hurt, but not in such a way that one sole
candidate was hurt."

In voting to accept the results of the
presidential contest, the Council acted with the
knowledge that only six of the ballots cast had
the names of Mr. Miller and Jack Rhoades
combined and that on one of these, the voter
had written in Mr. Miller's proper name.

The committee's report acknowledged that
while the mistake could have affected Mr.
Miller on the other five ballots, even if all five
had been counted for either him or Mr.
Rhoades, the results would have still been the
same.

Henry Doggrell, another member of the
committee, said, "I agree with Kevin that the
election was botched but there are no
constitutional grounds to overturn the
presidential election; however, there are
grounds to overturn the election for treasurer."

In its report, the committee said that, in the
latter election, 95 of the cast ballots did not
have the name of Edgar Parrish. Since the
eventual winner, Boyd Page, received only 67
votes, the omission of Mr. Parrish's name could
have affected the outcome.