258 A.D. 1079 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1940
On submission, on an agreed statement of facts, of a controversy relating to the validity of the election of the defendants as town officers at a general election held November 7, 1939, in the town of Cortlandt, Westchester county, judgment unanimously directed for plaintiffs, without costs. The election officials were justified in relying upon the validity of chapter 194 of the Laws of 1938 in the set-up of the election facilities in Peekskill. When they did so, they made no provision for the electorate in Peekskill to exercise in the usual course the right of selection in respect of town officers. After the election the statute upon which they relied was declared invalid. (Town of Cortlandt v. Village of Peekskill, 281 N. T. 490.) The result of the action of the election officials was that the electorate in Peekskill did not exercise their right of selection which would have been available to them if they had known that the statute in question was invalid. A valid election presupposes an “ opportunity to reject or choose another.” (People ex rel. Woods v. Crissey, 91 N. Y. 616, 635.) That opportunity was not afforded the electorate