Show election was legally conducted IT knoess KNOl SS OUT NOTHING democrats win all along hie unc courts opinion on various points the supreme court monday evening sustained tho election law in all its bearings and the democratic officers el ct legislators judges and county assume control of their var loas offices at ahe beginning of the new year the decision is quite lengthy and reviews striatum seria tum the different objections to th law set forth by judge M L ritchie the plaint ff answering first the objection that the election law as a ill did not properly pio perly pass the two ingres inures of the legislature as by he journal of the house the court ater quoting the references in the state i relating to the case saya constitutional provisions prescribing modes of enacting laws should be ob veil but whether tile proof of such beer vance consists ot the enrolled awe deposited in the office of the sec arary of state duly signed by the presiding officers of the respective houses and tha approval and signature of the governor or of the entries found on the journals of the respective houses furnishes a question as to which the courts of last presort in the various states differ uba actions may be urged to either means of proof minutes and memoranda may not always be correctly transcribed upon the journals aud the minutes and memoranda are sometimes made amid circumstances to confuse and distract the attention and to divert it from the business in hand bills may sometimes be enrolled and signed dv presiding officers and ap proved b the governor that have never been duly passed either dource is subject to pc seible error courts and lawyers will differ as to anich is the surest and best fico of information however when statutes are published people shape their actions and conduct with respect to them then incur obligations acquire rights and discharge duties in reliance upon them if such a law in any instance should turn out to be void because some requirement qui rement of the constitution had not been observed in its passage cereac injustice would be likely to follow we must regard the enrolled bill duly signed approved and deposited in the public archives as a more accessible and convenient of authentication and it referred to lees liable to over turn law and quite as reliable as the journal of the two houses the people ought not to be required to ransack fauch journals to ascertain whether laws have been duly passed and they cannot be expected to do so or should lawyers before advising their clients be required to such journals statutory enactments should not depend and stand upon such a sandy and uncertain foundation if a batter one can be found we are of the opinion that the enrolled bill duly deigned approved and deposited in the office of the secretary of state is quite as reliable and more acceptable and convenient than the entries or the absence of entries of legislative action shown by the journals of the both houses and if relied upon as unimpeachable will be less liable to overturn laws upon which the people have relied and under which they have acquired rights incurred obligations and performed duties less liable in that way to causa litigation and confusion the question involves considerations of public policy A number of citations are made from decisions in similar cases in other states bearing out the position above taken the question of the secrecy of the ballot is nest discussed after stating the proposition that plaintiff claims the law conflicts with the constitution requiring secrecy and the contention of defendants that the law is secret the court says without a violation of law no one can ascertain from this numbering for whom any citizen has voted without a contest and then the court or tribunal before whom the Is conducted should only allow tickets cast by persons who are not legal voters to be examined and persons casting such votes cannot insist upon secrecy if a person succeeds in getting an illegal ticket into the box it cannot be thrown out without identification and without the number or some other character or mark boon the ticket it cannot be identified when the name of a person who has cast so illegal ticket is ascer bained and the number i found from the poll list some authorized person must opan the box and break tb eeals until the richt number is found but until that one is reached euch person has no liht to examine the names on any ticket ane number beine on the corner it would not be necessary nor would it ba lawful for him to examine the names on any lawful ticket if it should become necessary to count the tickets in the box it would not be to break the seah and examine the numbers for that purpose it is clear that an examination necessary to a contest cannot disclose for whom any person except fraudulent voters have voted without a violation ot the spirit 0 the law we cannot presume that the authors cf the constitution intended to prevent election contests to prevent any proceeding by which ballots cast by illegal voters can be thrown out the method devised by this law preserves leal secrecy ae crecy the members of the convention must have known that election contests were permitted in all the states and that they are deemed necessary wherever tha people express their will at the polls justice should be permitted to pursue fraud even into the ballot box no man should bg allowed to hold an office obtained by corrupt or illegal votes to prevent it a numbering cf ballots is necessary in some cases it s sanctioned by authority A number of citations follow the other objection to the law thai its title does not clearly express the various subject of act the court says is not warranted the court contends that the various subjects can come under the title the law being held valid the court contends that its provision relating to the filling of judicial vacancies until they are filien at the next general election also hold good judge term would not have expired according to the constitution until january 1901 had it not been for the law of the legislature babore referred to which is held in the absence of anch a law tha court baya there would be great force in the claim that such appointee would hold until the general election to fill the office in 1901 and until the qualification of such person or a successor at that time but BO much of 5 of the act of april ath abaye quoted as relates to elections we hold to be valid it must be held to govern the objection is also made that the ballot by its party emblems gives partisans an advantage over non partisans the court says that the system tends to encourage the voting of straight tickets and to discourage independent voting which some of us think is an objection the system has its merits as well as its demerits and the legislative department of the keate government haa seen fit in its wisdom to enact the law and we do not feel author izad to overturn the peoples will as expressed through that body in the law the court holds that none of the various objections urged by the plaintiff is well founded we therefore deny the application for the writ |