Hodge v. Linn

Citations

• 100 Ill. 397
• 1881 Ill. LEXIS 111

Syllabus

<p>1. Election—irregularities in conducting are not fatal. Mere irregularities in conducting an election and counting the votes, not proceeding from any wrongful intent, which deprive no legal voter of his vote and do not change the result, will not vitiate the election, so as to justify the rejection of the entire poll of the town or precinct in which the irregularities occurred.</p> <p>2. The failure to number the ballots cast at an election, and to count the votes in the manner required by the statute, and to string the ballots on a thread or twine in the order of their reading, and the allowance of persons not judges or clerks of the election to assist in counting the votes, and the presence of persons in the room during the count not challengers or officers, where nothing appears to show any injurious effect, or that the votes were not truly counted, will not justify the court, on a contest of the election, to exclude.the entire poll and vote of a town as fraudulent and void. The rules prescribed by the statute in respect to these particulars are directory merely,— not jurisdictional or imperative.</p>