McCoy v. State ex rel. Allee

Citations

• 16 Del. 543

Syllabus

<p>Writ of Error to the Superior Court for Kent County.</p> <p>Mandamus. Election. Board of Canvass.—Elections were held in fourteen out of sixteen election districts of the county, and certificates of the result thereof, duly signed by the election judges, were delivered to the Board of Canvass, and in one of the other two districts an election was held, but no certificate signed or returned, while no election was held in the other of said two districts; the inspectors, with the Sheriff, met and organized as a Board of Canvass at the time and place prescribed by law ; the ten Democratic members of the Board calculated the votes of only eight of the fourteen districts; for which returns had been made, and refused to calculate the vote of the remaining six districts, whereby the vote of the county was ascertained to be about 3948, or about 2962 less than the total vote returned, and by this means pluralities were ascertained for the Democratic candidates for the offices to be filled by the election, and certificates of the result were signed by the said ten inspectors ; the six Republican inspectors, with the Sheriff as presiding officer, calculated the votes of all the said fourteen districts, for which certificates had been returned, and thereby ascertained the total vote so returned, by which there were pluralities in favor of the Republican candidates, and of this result certificates were made and signed by the said six inspectors and the Sheriff: Held, that a peremptory mandamus should not issue, upon petition of the candidates declared by the last mentioned certificates to have been elected, to compel the inspectors of the county to assemble at the court house of the county at a time named by the Court, and publicly perform their duty as a Board of Canvass, by ascertaining the state of the election, by calculating the aggregate amount of all the votes given in all the election districts of the county. Held, further, that a prerequisite to the issuing of a manda