119 Ga. 537 | Ga. | 1904
1. The act of December 12, 1859, to incorporate the town of Warrenton (Acts of 1859, p. 210), was, in so far as it limited to white persons the right to vote in municipal elections held in that town, modified by the fifteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States (McCrary on Elec. (4th ed.) 31; 6 Am. & Eng. Enc. Daw (1st ed.), 260, note 4 ; 10 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2d ed.), 573), as well as by the provisions of article 2 of the constitution of this State, adopted and ratified in 1868, Code of 1873, § 5027 ; Civil Code, § 5737.
2. The exclusion, solely on account of color, of persons qualified and offering to voté at the late municipal election in that town, there being a sufficient number excluded to have altered the result of the election, rendered it void. Spence v. Judge, 13 Ala. 805; Pennington v. Hare, 60 Minn. 146; Hartt v. Harvey, 19 How. Pr. 245, 32 Barb. 55; Webster v. Byrnes, 34 Cal. 273.
3. This being so, the defeated candidates could not, as such, have gained anything by contesting the election ; and it was their right, in their capacity as citizens and taxpayers of the town, to institute quo warranto proceedings against such of their opponents as were illegally installed in office under that election. Danis v. Dawson, 90 Ga. 817.
Judgment reversed.