Moorhead v. Arnold

Citations

• 73 Kan. 132
• 84 P. 742
• 1906 Kan. LEXIS 219

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Elections — Preservation of Ballots —• Finding by Contest Court — Review. Findings made by a court organized for the trial of a contested county election, relating to the physical appearance, condition and contents of a sack produced before it as the one in which the ballots from an election precinct had been sealed up and conveyed to the county clerk, will not be set aside for the lack of evidence when the bag with its contents was brought into the immediate presence of the court for inspection and both the bag-and its contents were inspected by each of the three judges.</p> <p>2. - Ground of Objection to Recount of Ballots Need Not be Pleaded. An objection by the contestee to the counting of papers offered by the contestor as the ballots from an election precinct, on the ground that they have not been preserved as required by law and are not brought into court in the same condition as that in which they were left by the election board, is an objection to evidence only, is not the statement of a defense to the causes of contest set forth in the contestor’s statement, and the grounds of the objection need not be pleaded in the contestee’s answer.</p> <p>3. - Custody and Identity of Ballots — Waiver of Investigation — Court Not Precluded Thereby. The mere fact that, upon the production in court by the county clerk of what purports to be a bag of ballots from an election precinct, the contestee waives investigation concerning the custody and identity of the supposed ballots and the court proceeds to count them does not preclude the court, in its discretion and in the public interest, from making such investigation and rejecting such ballots as not the best evidence at any time before it finally determines who was elected.</p>