State ex rel. Hyland v. Peter

Citations

• 21 Wash. 243
• 57 P. 814
• 1899 Wash. LEXIS 270

Syllabus

<p>■QUO WARRANTO — WHEN PROPER REMEDY-CONTESTED ELECTIONS.</p> <p>Where a city council of a city of the third class has provided no procedure for carrying on a contest for city offices, under Bal. Code, § 937, authorizing the city council to determine contested •elections of all city officers, the superior court is not ousted of its jurisdiction to try election contests therein by a proceeding in the nature of quo warranto.</p> <p>ELECTIONS-MARKING BALLOTS — INDICATING VOTER’S CHOICE.</p> <p>A cross on an election ballot opposite the words “vote for one,” ■one stroke of which extends below that space and into the space marked “Citizens’ Ticket,” is not a compliance with the statutory requirement that the ballot be marked opposite the political designation of the party for whom the elector intends to vote.</p> <p>■SAME.</p> <p>An election ballot must be so marked as to make it reasonably certain for whom the elector intended to vote, although the statute declares only those ballots void from which it is impossible to determine the elector’s choice, and requires a part to be counted when the ballot is sufficiently plain to gather therefrom a part of the voter’s intention.</p> <p>SAME.</p> <p>An election ballot, ai^iough not marked in the spaces provided, will be counted where it was marked immediately to the right of the names of the candidates for whom the elector voted.</p> <p>SAME — DISTINGUISHING MAKES.</p> <p>An election ballot on the back of which is a statement purporting to be made by the voter, reciting his inability to register, and declaring that by reason of his residence he is entitled to his franchise, was properly rejected, since, if the voter was not registered, he was not entitled to vote, and, if he placed the writing on the ballot himself, it was a distinguishing mark, which, under Bal. Code, § 1380, requires its rejection.</p> <p>SAME.</p> <p>A very heavy cross appearing at the proper place on an election ballot is not a distinguishing mark which w