Blankinship v. Israel

Citations

• 132 Ill. 514

Syllabus

<p>1. Contested election—evidence—ballots—poll-lists—tally-sheets. On a contest of an election the court may properly admit the ballots cast, with the poll-lists and tally-sheets, in evidence, when properly identified.</p> <p>2. Same—numbering the ballots. If there are more ballots found on the canvass of an election than are shown upon the poll-lists, the officers are required to reject the ballots not numbered, and if the ballots still exceed the names on the poll-lists, the ballots are to be shaken up again and ballots drawn therefrom and destroyed, without opening, until the ballots and lists correspond.</p> <p>3. The number of a voter at a town election was 547, and he voted, but his ballot, by mistake, was marked 548, making two ballots of that-number, and there was no ballot found numbered 547. The voter identified one of the ballots marked 548 as the one east by him : Held, that the vote of the voter whose number was 547 should be counted for the person named therein as voted for.</p> <p>4. The statutory requirement that the judges of election shall indorse on each ballot offered, the number corresponding with the voter on the poll-lists, is directory, only. So are those enactments which touch the recording and return of the votes received, and the manner of conducting an election in detail. While the officer may be liable for willful failure to discharge the duties imposed by the statute, the citizen is not thereby disfranchised.</p> <p>5. Same—of the right to vote—presumption. A person whose vote is received by the officers in charge of an election, in the absence of contrary evidence, will be presumed to have been a legal voter. The burden of proof lies on the party objecting to such vote to show that it is illegal.</p> <p>6. Same—ballot for two persons for the same office. A ticket cast at a town election, had, under name of the office “Bor assessor,” the printed name of one of the candidates, and under his name was written the name of another candidate,