Blaine v. Board of Supervisors

THE COURT.

Petition for writ of mandate to compel the respondent Board of Supervisors of Alameda County to refuse to certify the election of Chris B. Fox to the ofiice of justice of the peace of the city of Oakland (police judge), designated as office “No. One”, and to compel the county clerk of said county to refuse to issue to Chris B. Fox a certificate of his election to said office, and commanding the clerk to print on the ballot to be used at the ensuing general election the name of petitioner and the name of Chris B. Fox as candidates for said office.

Prior to the recent primary election, Howard L. Bacon, then the incumbent in said office, Chris B. Fox, and petitioner were candidates to be voted on at the primary election for said office. After the three persons named had qualified as candidates for the office, and after notice thereof was given and published, and the name of each had been printed on the sample and official ballots, as such candidates, as by law required, and thirteen days before the primary election, Judge Howard L. Bacon died from the effect of gunshot wounds inflicted by a disgruntled former client.

[488]

The circumstances of the shooting and the death of Judge Bacon were given much publicity by and through the press. The fact of his death, therefore, was generally known throughout the city of Oakland.

At the primary election held in the city of Oakland, a total number of 69,152 votes was cast for the candidates for the office of justice of the peace of the city of Oakland (police judge) “No. One”, of which total vote Judge Bacon, though dead, received 9,759, James S. Blaine, petitioner herein, 25,956, and Chris B. Fox 33,437. From these figures the petitioner contends that there was no election at the primary, in that Chris B. Fox did not receive a majority of the votes cast for all the candidates at the primary, and that he is, therefore, entitled to be placed on the November ballot as a candidate for the office opposed to said Chris B. Fox. The Board of Supervisors of Alameda County, unless compelled otherwise, is about to and will declare said Chris B. Fox elected to said office of justice of the peace, and would certify such fact to the respondent county clerk, who, it is alleged, will issue to Chris B. Fox a certificate of his election to the office, and will not print the names of any candidates for said office on the ballot for the general election in November.