175 Ga. 88 | Ga. | 1932
The Civil Code (1910), as adopted, provided in § 61 for the qualification of voters in intermediate or special elections. The General Assembly in 1911 enacted a more comprehensive law on the subject (Ga. Laws 1911, p. 167). In section 2 of the act of 1911 are found these words: “Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that section 61 of said Code [1910, volume 1] be repealed, and in lieu thereof the following section is hereby enacted.” Then follows the new law providing for “the qualifications .of voters for special elections.” The latter statute is found in Park’s Ann. Code and in Michie’s Code, § 61. The annotators of both those codes intimate doubt as to the constitutionality of the act of 1911 under the constitution of Georgia, which prohibits the repeal of any section of the code by mere reference to the title. Civil Code (1910), § 6445. That constitutional point is not in any way made in the present certified question, and accordingly will not be considered. It may be stated, however, that even if the act of 1911, sec. 2', fails to measure up to the constitutional requirement for the repeal of a code section, it would necessarily be true that the repealing clause, which expressly enacts “that all laws or parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act be and the same are hereby repealed,” would repeal all of section 61 of the Code of 1910 in conflict with the act. ■ That question, however, is not important in this ease, for the reason that as to bond elections the act of 1911 itself has been nullified by a constitutional amendment submitted to the people and ratified in 1918 (Ga. Laws 1918, p. 99). That amendment to the constitution is also found in 10 Park’s Code Supp. 1922, and in Michie’s Code, § 6563. It provides that “all laws, charter provisions, and ordinances heretofore passed or enacted, providing special registration of the voters of counties, municipal corporations, and other political divisions of this State to pass upon the issuance of bonds by such counties, municipal corporations, and other political divisions, are hereby declared to be null and void; and the General Assembly shall hereafter have no power to pass or enact any law providing for such special registration.” Thus it will be seen that there is no valid law in Georgia providing for special registration of voters for bond elections. That fact makes it unnecessary to consider that part of the certified question which recites that '“the fact that the provisions of the act of 1911, . . relating to registration for special elections, were not
Instruction on the second question is desired by the Court of Appeals only if the first question should be answered in the affirmative. It having been answered in the negative, the second question will not be considered.
The third question is also answered in the negative. The statute, by its express terms, requires the petition to be signed “by registered qualified voters.” That, of course, means that the voter who signs the petition must be not only registered but also qualified to register and to vote. It is well known that the list of voters on the registration books is constantly changing, new names being added and names thereon being purged and stricken from the list when such persons become disqualified by reason of non-payment of taxes, death, removal, conviction of crime, etc., or for other sufficient reason. The General Assembly knew, therefore, that any existing evidence of the right to vote because petitioners’ names were on the registered list may have become changed, that is, some of them may have become disqualified for the reasons already stated. Therefore, to make assurance doubly sure that all persons petitioning the school board for an election should be really qualified under the law to participate in such election, the board of
In Ray v. Swain, 148 Ga. 203 (96 S. E. 209), a number of citizens sought to enjoin the assessment, levy, and collection of taxes where the ordinary had called an election in a school district for the purpose of making an extra tax levy in such district. The petition for calling the election was lost, and was not produced at the hearing. Petition for injunction was filed, in which it was alleged that “the petition [for the election] did not show on its face that it contained the signatures of one fourth of the qualified voters of the district; that this fact is jurisdictional and can not