Twenty-Eighth Congressional District Nomination

Citations

• 268 Pa. 313
• 112 A. 74
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 684

Syllabus

<p>Election law — Congressmen—Nominations—Primary election — ■ Recount — Acts of July 18, 1918, P. L. 719, and July 9, 1919, P. L. 858 — Appeals—Certiorari—Considering opinion of court helow.</p> <p>1. Section 15 of the Act of July 12, 1913, P. L. 719, as amended by the Act of July 9, 1919, P. L. 852, does not authorize the commissioners, in computing the vote cast at a primary election, or the court on appeal from their action, to determine the qualifications of those who actually voted, or to exclude a poll because of defects in the election machinery.</p> <p>2. Only such matters can be considered on a contest of the election, which “shall originate and be conducted as in cases of general elections.”</p> <p>8. The only effect of the provision authorizing a recount of the ballots — although the fraud or error alleged is “not manifest upon the general return of the votes” made by the election officers — is to make clear the right to a recount, although the returns are in all respects regular and complete and consonant with each other.</p> <p>4. The duty imposed upon the court, on an appeal from the action of the commissioners in computing the vote, to “make such decree as right and justice may require,” is not greater than the duty of the latter to “correct, compute and certify the votes of such election district justly, regardless of any fraudulent or erroneous returns made by the election officers.”</p> <p>5. The provisions in said acts that “no appeal shall be allowed from any order or decree of the court of common pleas in pursuance of this section,” does not prevent an appellate court from considering jurisdictional matters on certiorari.</p> <p>6. In considering such matters in election cases, the appellate court may examine the opinion of the court below, in order to discover the reasons for its action.</p>