Soucy v. People ex rel. McCracken

Citations

• 113 Ill. 109
• 1885 Ill. LEXIS 671

Syllabus

<p>1. Officer—holding over until his successor is elected and qualified. A person elected to .an office for a stated time, and until his successor should be elected and qualified, may lawfully hold over until his successor is elected, etc., without being guilty of usurpation of office.</p> <p>2.. Elections—fraud and violence—as affecting the rights of one seeking to profit thereby. A person will not be allowed to maintain quo warranto against an officer holding over, on the ground that the former claims to have been elected and to .have qualified as his successor, when it appears from the evidence that the only title of the relator to the office was acquired through-fraud and violence at the polls. In such ease the court will not aid him in attempting to receive the emoluments of the office.</p> <p>3. At an election for supervisor, three persons came to the window where votes were taken, and offered their ballots and affidavits, when the partisans of one of the candidates knocked them down and drove them away, and would not allow any one to vote except for their candidate, and thereby deterred others from offering to vote, and the votes of the three persons so driven away were received by one of the judges at a back door, which, if counted) reelected the then present supervisor. On quo warranto by the candidate against whom those three votes were counted, to oust the incumbent, it was held, that the relator could not be allowed to show that the three persons against 'whom the violence was used were not legal voters; as that was a question for the judges of the election to decide, and not for the people, or partisans of the candidate, and his partisans having prevented such decision, he should not be allowed to raise that question.</p>