| Ala. | Nov 15, 1902
This case was here on a former appeal; when a number of questions now presented Avere passed on. — Black v. Pate, 130 Ala. 514" court="Ala." date_filed="1900-11-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/black-v-pate-6519117?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="6519117">130 Ala. 514; 30 So. Rep. 434. On reversal of the judgment and the return of the case to the court beloAV, the complaint was amended, striking out all grounds of contest except the one marked (a), in these Avords: “On account of illegal votes. And the said B. F. Pate avers -that illegal votes Avere given to George W. Black [the contestee] for sheriff, Avhich if taken from him, aat.11 reduce the number of legal votes given him, beloAV the number of legal Azotes given to the said B. F. Pate, [the contestant], candidate for the same office.”
Issue was taken by the contestee on this ground of contest, and he set up besides, that “at said election, illegal votes Avere cast and counted for contestant, B. F. Pate, AA-hich AAdien taken from said Pate, will render the number of legal votes cast for said Pate at said ele< tion far beloAV the number of legal votes, and counted for this respondent,” etc.
It Avas agreed by the parties, that according to the official count made by the supervisors of the election, the contestant received for sheriff of said county, eleven hundred and twenty-nine (1129) votes, and the contestee
• Each party gave notice to the other of the names Ol the illegal votes’lie expected to show had been cast for the other; the contestant giving the names of 75 voters in precinct 7, of the county, who voted for contestee, and who, as claimed, were illegal voters, eleven in beat 13 and one in beat 10. The contestee gave the names of 31 voters in beat 7 win ch he claimed voted for contestant and were illegal.
If these 31 votes cast for contestant, and claimed by contestee to be illegal, were in fact legal votes, the vote in the entire county cast for contestant would remain as estimated on the final return, at 1129 votes, since they were included in that estimate. On the other hand, if it should appear that the votes cast in beat 7 for contestee by the Ruffin negroes, were legal votes, the vote cast for contestee would be 1140, as shown by the final return, being 11 majority for contestee; these Ruffin negro votes being included in that estimate.
The contestee by assignment of error, questions the legality of these 31 votes cast for contestant, on the ground that box 2 in precinct 10, at which said votes were cast, was an illegal voting place. But, there is no merit in this contention, as was, in effect, held on a former appeal. It appears that the polling place was regularly established by the commissioner’s court, under the provisions of sections 1582-1585 of the Code.
The proof tends to show, and it is admitted by con-testee’s counsel that there were 45 of these votes, — alleged by the contestant to be illegal, — cast for him and counted in the returns. If these votes were legal, con-testee was elected; if not, the contestant was entitled to the office.
The facts relied on by contestant, to show that these Ruffin negroes were transients in the precinct and county and not entitled to vote are, that they were employes of Thomas Ruffin, a contractor engaged in the
The Code, sections 1556, 1558, prescribes as qualification of voters, that they must have resided at least one year in the State, in the county for three months and in the precinct, for thirty days next immediately preceding the election .at which they offer to vote, and that no person shall lose or acquire a residence by temporary absence from his place of residence without the intention of remaining.
Generally, to constitute residence there must be an intention to remain. But this purpose is consistent with a purpose to remove at some future, indefinite time.— McCrary on Elec. (4th ed.), § 98. The same author in section 105, after stating the general rule, that in order to gain a residence in a particular place a man must fix his domicile there with intention of remaining an indefinite time, and with no fixed purpose of making that place a temporary abiding place, only, observes: “But there are persons whose lives are necessarily migratory, whose: business is to travel from place to place. As, for example, a Methodist minister, who, by the law of his
In Langhammer v. Munter, (Md.) 27 L. R. A. 331, after much consideration, the court held, under a statute similar to ours, that “there is no requirement that the proposed voter shall have some particular spot, which he calls his home, provided he makes his home (in the sense of having no other home) anywhere or in however many places, for the required times, within the limits of the State and voting district.”
In the case before us, it satisfactorily appeared that the .Ruffin negroes were railroad laborers, and had been working as such under one Ruffin, a railroad contractor.
Reversed and rendered.