Mathewson v. Campbell

Citations

• 91 Kan. 625
• 138 P. 637
• 1914 Kan. LEXIS 90

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Election Contest — Defective Ballots — Identification Marks— Review. In an appeal from the district court in a proceeding to contest an election, the result being determinable from the markings upon the face of the ballots, and where the questions are presented on the appeal without oral testimony and practically as they were presented in the trial court, the supreme court is required to determine what votes should have been counted and what should have been rejected substantially as it would have done if the same questions had been submitted to it in an original proceeding in quo warranto.</p> <p>2. Same • — ■ Ballots — Certain Marks Not Identification Marks. Certain official ballots delivered to the voters had printed thereon short horizontal marks in the middle of the squares at the right of the names of the candidates. Some of the voters completed cross marks by penciling a line across the printed horizontal mark, and as the defect resulted from the printing and preparation of the official ballot and there is nothing to show a fraudulent purpose it is held that the defect did not destroy the validity of the ballot.</p> <p>3. Same. The fact that voters wrote the name of “Theodore Roosevelt,” which was the name of a candidate, in the blank column under the head of “Presidential Electors” and placed cross marks in the squares opposite did not, of itself, render the ballots invalid nor prevent the counting of the same in favor of the candidates for other offices whose names were legally marked upon the ballots.</p> <p>4. SAME. The changing of a ballot furnished to an absent voter, and which had been printed and prepared for the district where he tendered his vote, in an effort to adapt it to the district in which he resided and where the vote was to be canvassed and counted can not be regarded as a distinguishing mark, nor will such change, of itself, render the ballot invalid.</p>