Chapter 26
Election Results

The voting stopped at six o’clock that night.

The government man from Sacramento, Rev. Rutledge, and a few people they’d gotten to help locked the door right then and started to count the ballots. They figured to be done and announce the results by eight-thirty or nine o’clock.

By eight a pretty big crowd was beginning to gather around the schoolhouse. Lots of people had come back to town, whole families in wagons, carrying lanterns and torches. At eight-fifteen, Mr. Royce drove up in his fancy black buggy. We were all bundled up warm in the back of our wagon. People came over now and then to speak briefly to Pa and Almeda, but mostly we just waited nervously. We tried to figure out how many voters there were. Pa and Almeda thought there would be somewhere between three and five hundred men who lived in and close enough to Miracle to vote for its mayor. There were probably another hundred or two hundred men who lived farther away who would have come to town to vote in the presidential election.

At about eight-forty the door to the schoolhouse opened. Some men came out, and everybody who was waiting came and clustered around the stairs to hear the news. The government man held a paper in one hand and a lantern in the other.

“I have some results to report to you,” he said, and silence fell immediately over the crowd. “First of all, in the election you’re most interested in, that for mayor of Miracle Springs, we have tallied the unofficial vote as follows. These will have to be re-confirmed, but this is the first count. For Mrs. Almeda Parrish Hollister, the first name on the ballot, there were 67 votes cast.”

A small ripple of applause scattered about. Already I could see a smile starting to spread across Mr. Royce’s face where he stood not too far away.

“For the final name to appear on the ballot, Mr. Franklin Royce, we have a total of 149 votes.”

Again there was some applause, though it was not as loud as Royce had expected. His smile grew wide. The turnout was not very high, but he was willing to take the victory any way it came. He began making his way through the crowd and toward the steps where he was apparently planning to address the people of Miracle Springs with a short victory speech. He had just taken the first two steps when he was stopped by the sound of the man at the top of the landing again.

“And in what is a most unusual and unexpected occurrence, we have a third unregistered candidate. . . .”

Everybody could almost feel the chill sweep through Mr. Royce’s body. The smile began to fade from his lips.

“This candidate has received a sizeable number of write-in votes. In fact, by our unofficial tabulation, a certain Mr. Drummond Hollister, with 243 write-in votes, would appear to be the winner. . . .”

Before these last words were out of his mouth, a huge cheer went up from the crowd gathered there in the darkness. Instantly scores of people clamored around Pa and Almeda, shouting and shaking hands and clapping and whooping and hollering. In the middle of it, suddenly Mr. Royce appeared. His smile was gone, and even in the darkness I could see the rage in his eyes.

“I don’t know what kind of trick this is, Hollister,” he said. “But believe me, you won’t get away with it!”

Without waiting for a reply, he spun around and walked back to his buggy. No one took any notice as he turned his horse and cracked his whip and flew back toward town. Nothing ever came of this last threat. There was not a thing he could do. Pa had won the election fair and square!