35 Nev. 189 | Nev. | 1912
An agreed statement of facts is filed, from which it appears that the petitioner on October 1, 1912, filed his certificate of nomination as a candidate for the “Independent party” for the office of county commissioner for said Clark County for the long term, to be voted for at the next ensuing general election; that said certificate was signed by 105 qualified electors of said county; that said number of electors constitutes more than ten per cent of the entire vote cast in said county at the last preceding general election; that the said certificate in all other respects was in due form; that thereafter, on the 4th day of October, 1912, and within the time prescribed by law, the certificate of nomination of one J. L. Russell as candidate of the Socialist party for the same office was filed with the respondent; that the certificate of said
Counsel for the respective parties have submitted the following as points in controversy:
“(1) Whether or not the county clerk, defendant, has the right to eliminate from the count of the signers to plaintiff’s certificate of nomination the 31 names appearing upon the certificate of nomination of both plaintiff and J. L. Russell.
“(2) If so eliminated, is the county clerk justified in refusing to publish the nomination of plaintiff, and in omitting the plaintiff’s name from the ballot as a candidate at the general election for said office of long-term county commissioner ?
“(3) Whether the fact that plaintiff’s certificate of nomination was circulated, signed, and filed prior to the circulation of the certificate of nomination of J. L. Russell would prevent the county clerk from eliminating the duplicated names from the certificate of nomination of plaintiff.”
We think the language used in section 6, supra, means only that, when an elector has signed a certificate of nomination of a candidate for a public office representing a certain party or principle, he is disqualified from thereafter signing another petition of nomination of another
The case of O’Connor v. Smithers, 45 Colo. 23, 99 Pac. 46, is more nearly in point. The statute of Colorado, involved in the latter case provides: “No person shall sign more than one certificate of nomination for any office.” In the latter case the facts were that two certificates for the nomination of certain identical legislative candidates (one certificate designated as “Business” ticket, and the other “Anti-Guggenheim” ticket) were tendered the secretary of state at the same time. The law of Colorado required that each certificate be signed by not less than 100 qualified electors. Each certificate tendered was signed by 115 names, but upon examination the court found that not less than 46 names were the same upon each certificate. Considering the law of the case, the court said: “An elector, once having exercised the right to join in a certificate as an individual nominating a candidate for office under some name adopted by the signers, cannot join in nominating the same person for the same office under some other name. Having exercised the right once, he is precluded from exercising it again under such circumstances. The purpose of the statute in allowing nominations by individuals was to confer upon electors the right to place candidates in nomination under some party name which they might choose representing a principle which they desired to support at the polls; but it was never intended (and, in fact, is inhibited by the statute last above referred to) that they could exercise this right indefinitely, by duplicating the nomination of candidates for the same offices to be voted for at the same election under different names. If the rule were otherwise, the official
It was necessary to eliminate from consideration all duplicate names upon the two certificates considered in the Colorado case, for- the reason that the two certificates " were tendered the secretary of state at the same time. ” We do not, however, interpret the Colorado court as holding that, in every case where an elector signs more than one certificate, his signature to all should be disregarded. If the court intended to so hold, we would not be able to agree in its construction of the statute. An elector may make one valid signature to one petition for the nomination of a candidate for a particular office. Having signed one such certificate, he becomes disqualified to sign
We do not wish to be understood as holding that where two petitions are presented to the clerk, which have not the required number of signers without counting the names of the electors who have signed both, the clerk may not refuse to file either until some showing is made that enough of the signers were first signers; nor that, if two petitions are filed or offered for filing together or at different times for the same office, the clerk may not refuse to certify the name or names to the ballot until such showing is made. Where it can be determined to which petition the signature of an elector signing more than one certificate was first appended, it should be credited to that petition and disregarded as to all others.
Under the requirements of a statute reading: "No person shall join in nominating more candidates for any office than there are persons to be elected thereto,” Spencer, J., in Re Smith, 41 Misc. Rep. 501, 85 N. Y. Supp. 14, said: "I think the intent of this provision is plain that a man, having once joined in nominating a candidate, shall not thereafter join in nominating another for the same office at that election; * * * that if any person joined in the certificate who had joined in nominating another candidate, his signature to the certificate is of no avail, and must be disregarded. ”
The certificate of nomination of the petitioner is valid, and the respondent is directed and required to treat the same as all other certificates of nomination recognized by him as valid.