Packwood v. Brownell

Citations

• 121 Cal. 478
• 53 P. 1079
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 935

Syllabus

<p>Election Contest—Malconduct of Election Boabd—Insufficient Statement—Dismissal.—A statement of contest of an election, which merely' specifies malconduct of the judges of election in not opening the polls at- sunrise of the day of election, and in not keeping the polls open for the length of time .required by law, and in allowing persons to vote whose names did not appear upon the precinct register, and in not being all present during all of the time that the polls were held open, and that votes were received during the absence of certain members of the board, is insufficient to sustain the contest, and should be dismissed.</p> <p>Id.—Pbesencb of Election Officers.—The law does not require the presence of all the election officers during all the time that voting is in progress.</p> <p>Id.—Illegal Votes.—The mere fact that illegal votes were received by the judges of election is no ground for rejecting the whole vote of a precinct, where there is nothing to show that they were received through fraud or conspiracy, or in such manner as to discredit the presumptive integrity of the board, or to show that there is no practicable means of ascertaining the true vote, and purging the poll.</p> <p>Id.—Opening Polls at Sunrise—Delay Consistent with Honesty—Nonobstbuction of Suffbage.—Some latitude must be allowed for judgment as to the time of sunrise in the opening of polls; and where delay in opening them precisely at sunrise is not alleged to be inconsistent with honest intent, and the violation of the letter of the law is not alleged to have operated to obstruct the full and fair expression of the suffrage of the precinct, the bald fact of such delay is not sufficient to disfranchise the precinct.</p>