Luzerne Legal Register Reports (Volume 18) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917. Excerpt: ... technical formal elements required in a contested election but arrive at a means of getting a quick judgment by a method entirely commendable and in the interests of simplicity and justice. The questions submitted to the Court are. in view of the express statute governing the matter, not difficult. The Act of April 14, 1897, P. L. 23, provides: "Whenever in any contested election the tribunal trying the case shall decide that the ballots used were, by reason of the omission, addition, mis-placing, mis-spelling or mis-statement of one or more titles of office, or names of candidates, or parties or policies represented by them, so defective as to the office in contest as to be calculated to mislead the voter in regard to any of the candidates nominated for said office and that the defective conditions of said ballots may have affected the result of the entire election for said office, the said tribunal shall declare the election to be invalid as regards the said office, and shall report their decision to the proper officer or officers who are now by law authorized to fill vacancies occurring in such office, who upon receipt of such notice shall without delay proceed to appoint a suitable person or persons to fill the vacancies thus created, and the person or person so appointed shall continue in office until the next election succeeding his appointment at which such office is now by law required to be filled." In the case before us the mistake involves defective ballots made so by the misplacing of names of candidates, and the misstatement as to party policies represented by them. This omission is aggravated through the remarkable similarity in names of the opposing candidates. It is hard to imagine a case in which such "defective condition of said ballots..".