Carter v. Putnam

Citations

• 141 Ill. 133
• 30 N.E. 681

Syllabus

<p>1. Contest of election—proof of alienage of voter. On the contest of an election held in 1891, the contestant read in evidence a certified copy of a declaration of an intention to become a citizen of the United States, signed, “J. M. Palmer, M. D.,” subscribed and sworn to October 6, 1888. This declaration recited that the applicant was bom in Canada, in 1865, and that he emigrated to the United States in May, 1888. This was followed by a record of a physician’s certificate found in the county clerk’s office, which showed this: “Registered March 19, 1890, J. Allen Palmer; post-office, Alvin; age, twenty-six; nativity, Illinois.” The date of the certificate was February 19,1891, based upon a diploma and license from a college at Toronto. It was proved that J. A. Palmer, the voter, was a physician, aged about thirty-five years, and that before the election he said he was a Canadian, and that he went from Canada to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and finally came here ; Held, that the evidence prima facie showed that the person so voting was not a voter.</p> <p>2. Same—thirty days’ residence prior to. A voter moved with his family upon a leased farm in the town in which he voted, twenty-nine days before the election, but before that date he moved his cow, plows, chickens and a cupboard upon the farm: Held, that the removal of these articles, while he and his family still remained at his former residence, was not sufficient to change his residence. Had he rented the farm in the town to which he proposed to remove, more than thirty days prior to the election, and gone upon it himself with a part of his goods, and remained there, occupying the house as a residence until his family joined him, which was twenty-nine days before the election, he might have claimed a residence from the time he went upon the farm.</p> <p>3. Same—residence—whether lost by temporary absence with intention of returning. A party, by a temporary removal of himself and family into another State with the in