330 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Feb. 19,

ially abridged or shortened, the law presumes that an
injury was done, and a contestant who seeks to have
counted the ballots cast at a Precinct where the time
for voting has been abridged, is required to take upon
himself the burden of proving affirmatively, that the
contestee was not injured by the abridgement of the
time prescribed by law for the holding of the elec-
tion.

In this case the time prescribed by law for holding
an election was from 8 A. M. to 6 P. M.; by reason of
no official ballots having been furnished, no ballots
were offered or attempted to be cast until 12 1/2 P. M.

Thus the contestee was deprived of four and one--
half hours of the time he was entitled to have under
the law for casting by the voters of their ballots.

The contestant has not attempted to show by proof
that the contestee was not injured by the abridgement
of the time, although the burden rested upon him so
to do; if he desired to maintain his claim to have the
ballots at St. Leonard's counted, it was his duty to
take upon himself this burden and support it by
proof. The presumption of law is that the contestee
was injured by the taking away of four and one-half
hours from the time prescribed by law for voting, and
the contestant offers no evidence to overcome this pre-
sumption. For this reason, if for no other, the com-
mittee is of opinion that the ballots cast at St.
Leonard's Precinct should not be counted, but should
be rejected.

3. There has been prevalent in our country for a
long time, the belief that the sanctity of the ballot was '
in danger not only from open fraud and violence, but
from undue influence exerted over the voter, this un-
due influence might be fraudulent as by bribery or an
influence not strictly fraudulent, but of so importune
a character as from threats or fear, as often to deter
the voter from expressing his real wishes at an ejec-
tion.

The best minds and men in our country have agreed
that the proper mode to prevent this evil of undue
influence, is to provide by law for the absolute secrecy
of the ballot. So that it will be impossible ever to
ascertain how a voter voted. It being hoped that this
secrecy of the ballot would deter any from resorting