141 A. 254 | Pa. | 1928
Argued January 25, 1928. These are election contests for the offices of burgess and tax collector in the Borough of Throop, Lackawanna County. Fred C. Fabretti was returned as elected to the former office and Emma Bright to the latter. The court below determined that neither of them was legally chosen and awarded a certificate of election as burgess to Peter Sioch and as tax collector to James J. McNulty. From this action Fred C. Fabretti and Emma Bright appeal.
The record is a voluminous one, covering more than 1,250 pages. We are satisfied after a review of it that the correct conclusion was reached by the judges who determined the proceedings and believe that no good purpose would be served by detailing even the salient features in the mass of testimony which is analyzed in an opinion by Judge MAXEY of the court below covering more than one hundred pages of the record. We shall content ourselves by briefly summarizing some outstanding features of the cases and by stating appellants' contentions and our conclusions. *392
The whole controversy hinges on whether it was proper to throw out the entire vote of the second ward which the court did. Appellants argue that this should not have been done, that instead the poll should have been purged of the illegal ballots. There was but one polling place in the ward and in it 1,143 votes were cast. The testimony satisfyingly discloses that the election officers entered into a conspiracy before the voting began to conduct a corrupt election. The court found as a fact that there was an unlawful combination between members of the election board and Fabretti and Emma Bright to deprive Sioch and McNulty of an honest election and honest count of the votes cast.
The glaringness of the illegalities as disclosed by the testimony and as found by the court below can be summed up as follows: More than 140 persons voted on fraudulent tax receipts which were furnished by Emma Bright, who was the tax collector in office and a candidate for reelection, or by others in her behalf. The night before the election several hundred tax receipts were written out in her home; her name purports to be signed to them. She did not take the witness stand and no explanation was offered about these illegal tax receipts on which at least seven score persons voted; 296 nonregistered voters were allowed to vote without complying with section 10 of the Act of May 6, 1899, P. L. 254, providing how nonregistered voters may become eligible to vote. As many as 250 persons had assistance in marking their ballots without having declared their disability as provided by the Act of June 10, 1893, P. L. 419, section 26; Fabretti himself marked 137 of these ballots. The court below finds that voters were brought into the election room in groups and voted indiscriminately without regard to their qualifications or their names or addresses. The two lists of voters required to be kept by the election officers were kept improperly. The list of voters kept by one clerk does not correspond with that kept by the other either in number of voters *393 or names and in some instances the names cannot be deciphered; they both contain upwards of 300 names not on the registry list. As these names were added to the list, addresses and occupations were omitted, thus making identification impossible; many of these unregistered voters were not residents of the district. The examiner who heard the testimony reported to the court that it was impossible for him or for any other person who should examine the lists of voters prepared by the election officers to determine the names of many of them and the court finds that to keep a list of voters as did these election officers is equivalent to keeping no list at all. No return was made of unused ballots and no stubs of ballots were found in the ballot box. Intoxicating liquors were furnished in the interest of Fabretti and Emma Bright to voters in a room in the building where the voting took place. Money was apparently corruptly used to influence voters in their behalf. Fabretti, who had been chief of police of the borough, was present in the election room, as was another armed officer for a large part of the day for the evident purpose of intimidating voters. Fabretti took possession of the ballot box after the polls closed.
The court below recognized that if it was possible to purge the ballot box of the illegal votes therein this should be done, but found that the "illegal votes cannot be identified in the box." Our examination of the record convinces us that there is no way of accurately identifying the ballots of the 296 illegal nonregistered voters, of the 140 or more who voted on fraudulent tax receipts or of the 250 who received illegal assistance. It is true, as appellants say, we laid down the rule in Ayre's Contested Election,
In such proceedings as these we examine the proofs to see whether there is any evidence to warrant the findings of the trial court and to sustain the action complained of: Hand's Case,
One other matter remains for consideration. Complaint is made that all of the judges of the court below did not sit in banc in making final disposition of the cases. We do not intend in any way to abate the requirement laid down in McCormick's Election,
Being of opinion that the proceedings were properly determined in the court below, its order is affirmed at appellants' cost.