R. Simpson (Bob) Stewart
“R. Simpson Stewart” was better known as Bob Stewart when he was Sports Editor, and Robert S. Stewart when he was a bureau chief and city hall reporter during his 42-year newspaper career at The Canton Repository, from where he retired at the end of 1998. He was the Sports Editor the last 28 years of his service there.
A native of Wheeling, West Virginia, Stewart grew up and attended high school in New Cumberland, W. Va., attended West Virginia University and served in the U. S. Marine Corps during the Korean War.
He first joined the Canton Writers Guild in the 1960s, and is a past president.
Among other community endeavors since his retirement, he is also on the board of Trustees for The First Tee of Canton junior golf program and the advisory board for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Luncheon Club
No Hanging Chads!
2008 winner
KERTHUNK!
The deadbolt slammed home with the solid sound signifying Precint 1 of Ward C, Hancock County, West Virginia was closed.
The ballot casting was concluded for this November Tuesday in 1962.
“Okay, ladies, let’s getta the move on, I no wanna be here all night, I gotta calzones to finish before my butt hits the bed,” spouted Marie Monginini, the presiding judge.
Marie was matriarch of the Little Italy section that was the north end of Weirton, the biggest city in the northernmost county in the state that turned the tide for John F. Kennedy in the primary just a couple of years before.
To ask if Marie is a Democrat was tantamount to asking if the Pope is Catholic. Of course there were few in Weirton’s north end who were not both.
Since Marie had been counting ballots, and that was before FDR, only one Republican ever had been elected to a county office in Hancock County.
Marie remembered her nephew Frankie, and his “bad luck.”
Frank Pietranton, a two-term County Prosecuting Attorney, nearly made a third term, but lost to a lady lawyer of the GOP persuasion from the other end of the county, Chester.
Marie was sure that had the judge allowed Frankie to campaign outside the prison walls of the Moundsville State Penitentiary, where he was doing 7-10 for bank fraud, tax evasion and perjury, he would have made a far better showing. Marie and the family got over it, because their other cousin, the Circuit Judge, gave them a few extra visiting days each month.
But that was then and this was now, and Marie had to get cracking. She snipped the wire that sealed the hinged top of the large round steel ballot box and began the count.
Marie knew this would be a lot better than that damn primary, with its bed-sheet ballot on both sides. Why do so many people think they can get elected to office? How can 13 run for one seat?
Tonight also would be a lot faster than the 1960 general that drew a record vote. Not so many folks bothered in these off years.
Making the voter’s choice easier in those days was the “slate” option. In General election, the two party’s candidates were separated into vertical halves of the ballot, and atop the Republican side was a circle with an elephant above it. The Democrats had a rooster above their circle.
To vote for every candidate in your party, you simply penciled your “X” in the circle of your choice, then you didn’t have to “X” every name.
So as Marie pulled the first paper ballot out of the box she blinked hard at the mark.
THERE WAS AN “X” IN THE REPUBLICAN CIRCLE!!!
After catching her breath, and calming the other poll workers, Marie placed it on the table, to the right of the big ballot box.
The second ballot was Democratic. So was the third, and so on and so forth as the count continued and the box was emptied.
Then, as Marie reached deep into the can to pull out that final paper ballot, she gasped. It was another X in the Republican circle!
She took a deep breath, reached over and picked up the first pieced of paper. She studied the two ballots closely, turned them over, twice, and even held them up to the bare bulb over the table.
Then, as the other poll workers sat in rapt attention, she stood up.
“How about that,” she exclaimed. “Some blankety blank voted twice!” And she tore up both sheets of paper.
“Let’s go home, ladies, this one’s history.”