Chapter 318. relating to contested elections
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/statutes-at-large/vol-24/chapter-318-1895527·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 318.— An Act relating to contested elections.March 2, 1887. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Contested electionss House of Representatives.[R. S., sec. 127, p. 20, amended](/us/rs/t/s127/p20).Testimony to be sent to Clerk of House. That section one hundred and twenty-seven of the Revised Statutes of the United States be so amended as to read as follows: " “All officers taking testimony to be used in a contested election case, whether by deposition or otherwise, shall, when the taking of the same is completed, and without unnecessary delay, certify and carefully seal and immediately forward the same, by mail or by express, addressed to the Clerk of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, District of Columbia; and shall also indorse upon the envelope containing such deposition or testimony the name of the case in which it is taken, together with the name of the party in whose behalf it is taken, and shall subscribe such endorsement.
“The Clerk of the House of Representatives, upon the receipt of suchNotice to parties. deposition or testimony, shall notify the. contestant and the contestee, by registered letter through the mails, to appear before him at the Capitol, in person or by attorney, at a reasonable time to be named, not. exceeding twenty days from the mailing of such letter, for the purpose of being present at the opening of the sealed packages of testimony and of agreeing upon the parts thereof to be printed.
Upon the dayOpening of package. appointed for such meeting the said clerk shall proceed to open all the packages of testimony in the case, in the presence of the parties or their attorneys, and such portions of the testimony as the parties may agree to have printed shall be printed by the Public Printer, under the directionPrinting. of the said clerk; and in case of disagreement between the parties as to the printing of any portion of the testimony, the said clerk shall determine whether such portion of the testimony shall be printed; and the said clerk shall prepare a suitable index to be printed with the record.
And the notice of contest and the answer of the sitting member shall also be printed with the record. “If either party, after having been duly notified, should fail to attend,On failure of parties to at tend, clerk to open. by himself or by an attorney, the clerk shall proceed to open the packages, and shall cause such portions of the testimony to be printed, as he shall determine. “He shall carefully seal up and preserve the portions of the testimonyTestimony to be laid before Committee on Elections. not printed, as well as the other portions when returned from the Public Printer, and lay the same before the Committee on Elections at the earliest opportunity.
As soon as the testimony in any case is printed the clerk shall forward by mail, if desired, two copies thereof to the contestant and the same number to the contestee; and shall notify the contestant to file with the clerk, within thirty days, a brief ofContestant’s brief. the facts and the authorities relied on to establish his case. The clerk shall forward by mail two copies of the contestants’ brief to the contestee, with like notice. “Upon receipt of the contestee’s brief the clerk shall forward two Contestee’s brief.copies thereof to the contestant, who may, if he desires, reply to new matter in the contestee’s brief within like time.
All briefs shall be printed at the expense of the parties respectively, and shall be of like folio as the printed record; and sixty copies thereof shall be filed with the clerk for the use of the committee on Elections.” " Approved, March 2, 1887.