State ex rel. Smith v. Burbridge

Citations

• 24 Fla. 112

Syllabus

<p>1. Whenever a power is given by statute everything necessary to the effectual execution of the power is given by implication. The failure of a statute to declare the mode of proceeding under it does not defeat its purpose.</p> <p>2. Where a statute incorporating a municipality designates the officers to be elected, prescribes the qualification of the voters and provides for the division of the territory into wards, and in what ward an elector may vote, ana fixes the day on which the election shall be held, and adopts as applicable to such election the general provisions of law governing elections, the omission from the statute of any express provision designating a polling place in each ward, or authorizing particular officers or persons to do so, and to appoint inspectors, and the further omission of provisions for the compilation of the result of the election as ascertained by the several precinct inspectors, does not render the statute inoperative. The power to supply such omission is-granted by implication to the voters of the municipality.</p> <p>S. It is the duty of a court to sustain an election authorized by law, if it has been so conducted as to give a free and fair expression of the popular will, and the actual result thereof is clearly ascertained.</p> <p>4. Where an election has been held under statute of the character indicated above at the .time specified in it, and at polling places previously designated at the instance of the voters and advertised as the places at which the same would be held in the several wards, and there was no uncertainty as to either the time or place of holding the election, and it has been so advertised and conducted as to give every voter an opportunity to vote, and has been free and fair, and the result of the vote as astually cast is clearly ascertained, and no essential provision of the statute authorizing or applicable to the election has been violated, such election is legal, and will be sustained.</p>