At about the same time as the arrest of Wooley Kearney, a double back action ballot box, used to insure the outcome of San Francisco elections, was found in a saloon on First Street near Mission by Captain Isaiah Lees of the regular police. While only one of many it was a good example of how the criminal element in San Francisco operated. The Committee of Vigilance got custody of it and displayed it at their headquarters. Here it exerted great influence through its powerful yet silent testimony on how voting had long been rigged. This helped keep the focus of the committee on its often disagreeable yet incredibly necessary work.
Back action ballot box
On the evening of the same day that Carr and Kearney, the supposed owner of the ballot box, were tried and convicted, the delegates met for the second time. The testimony and verdicts of the executive committee in the cases of the five men from the black list were read over then voted on and unanimously approved. At the same meeting the constitution of the Committee of Vigilance, already approved by the executive committee, was adopted by the delegates as the constitution of the entire Committee of Vigilance.
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