102 N.Y.S. 353 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1906
There is presented in this case the sufficiency of certain certificates filed with the board of elections placing in nomination Francis B. Shober for member of Congress from the seventeenth Congressional district. It seems that the seventeenth Congressional district is composed of several entire Assembly districts and portions of other Assembly districts, all of these Assembly -districts being included in the county of New York. On the 16th day of October, 1906, there was filed a number of sheets fastened together which purported to place in nomination Francis E. Shober for member of Congress from the seventeenth Congressional district, James R.
Section 57 provides for independent nominations. This section provides that “ Independent nominations of candidates for public office other than municipal offices to be voted for in a district less than the whole State, but greater than a town or ward of a city, can only "be made by one thousand electors or move of the district. * * *' Independent nominations shall be made by a certificate subscribed by such electors, each of whom shall add to his signature his place 'of residence and make oath that he is. an elector and has truly stated his residence. * * * The certificate of nomination and each separate paper thereof, if there be more than one such paper, shall contain the following declaration, which shall be subscribed to by the signers thereof : We, the undersigned, duly qualified electors of the district for which the nomination for public office is hereby made under the provisions of section fifty-seven of the Election Law, do hereby declare that it is our intention to support at the polls the candidacy of the person or persons herein nominated for public office. * * * The signatures to the certificate of nomination need not all be appended to one paper.” The board of elections appear to have passed upon these objections without any examination, which, from the number of independent nominations made, was impossible within the timé fixed by the statute ;• and the determination of the Special Term seems to have been merely formal. Within the time' that we have, it is impossible to go over these petitions and ascertain whether
It is impossible to treat a certificate as sufficient to nominate for one office therein named and to treat the attempt to nominate for the other offices as surplusage, because there is no test by which it can be determined for which office it can be considered a valid certificate of nomination. Our conclusion is that such á certificate is invalid for any purpose, and for. that reason ■ the order appealed from and the determination-of the board of elections is reversed.
Present — O’Brien, P. J., Ingraham, Lahghlin, Clarke and Scott, JJ.