109 Ga. 183 | Ga. | 1899
An election was held under the provisions of section 1541 et seq. of the Political Code, in the county of Cow-eta, to determine whether the sale of liquor should be allowed in that county. The ordinary declared the result of the election as being “against the sale.” A contest was instituted in the superior court, the petition setting forth various grounds as the “cause of contest.” Upon demurrer all of the grounds of contest, except three, were stricken. Upon the hearing of the grounds not stricken, the judge determined them against the contestants and approved the action of the ordinary. The contestants excepted to the judgment sustaining the demurrer. Only those grounds which were insisted on in the argument in this court will be dealt with in this opinion.
Section 625 of the Penal Code provides that any person “ who shall vote without having signed the oath provided by the tax-collector in said voters book, unless his name shall have been entered on the lists of legal voters as provided by law, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” The latter clause of the section, saving a qualified voter who has improperly entered as a registered voter from indictment for voting as such, is strongly indicative of a legislative intention to make the judgment of the registrars conclusive on sucli matters. If the name of a person who is not a qualified voter is entered upon the list of registered voters, he would not become a qualified voter. While the managers of the election would be authorized to receive a ballot from him, on a contest of the election the vote would not be counted; and the person so voting would be subject to indictment for illegal voting (Penal Code, § 629), as well as for a violation of the registration laws. Penal Code, § 625. It was claimed in the present case that the names of a number of persons were entered on the voters book without the authority of the tax-collector or his clerk, some by the tax-receiver and some by persons unknown; that some of those whose names were on the voters book never took the oath prescribed by law, but that the tax-collector included those names on the lists furnished to the county registrars, and such registrars, in ignorance of how they were entered on the voters book, included their names in the list of registered voters, and that such illegally registered persons voted at the election and voted against the sale, and that their number wassuchthat if their votes were thrown out the result of the election would be changed. The
Judgment affirmed.