Grieb v. Zemansky

HENSHAW, J.

The plantiff, for himself and all others ■similarly situated, applies for a writ of mandate from this court against the defendants, Zemansky, as the registrar of voters, and the other defendants as members of the board of •election commissioners of the city and county of San Francisco, to compel them, when they come to examine the suffificiency of “nomination papers” filed in behalf of candidates proposed for nomination at the primary election in August, 1910, and in directing the manner of conducting said primary •election, to recognize and use the great register of voters registered in the years 1908 and 1909, and, as supplementary thereto, the new great register which began to be made on January 1, 1910. In the return the defendants assert that the new registration beginning January 1, 1910, is the only one that can lawfully be used for the above mentioned purposes.

The questions to be determined therefore are: 1. What register shall be used at the primary election in August, 1910; 2. Who constitute the qualified electors authorized by law to ■sign a' candidate’s nomination papers?

1. We are of the opinion that the provisions of the law plainly indicate that the new registration of 1910 shall alone

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be used at the August primary election. The provisions of the law in this respect are as follows:—

“The qualifications and registration of voters and. the privileges of electors to attend the polls at primary elections shall be subject to the same tests and governed by the same rules and regulations as are in the constitution and Political Code of this state established and prescribed for general elections; and the same officers who furnish the original affidavits of registration, indexes and supplements thereto, for general elections, as provided for in this code, shall furnish them for use at primary elections. It shall be the duty of the proper officers to furnish the original” affidavits of registration, indexes and supplements thereto, for use at primary elections, which shall show the names of all voters entitled to vote at such elections; provided, that where a new registration pursuant to law is not completed in point of time sufficient to permit of its use at the next ensuing primary election, then the original affidavits of registration and indexes used at the last general election in any county, or city and county, in this state, may be used at any primary election, together with the original affidavits of registration since the last election and supplemental indexes, showing all the additional registrations, changes, and corrections, made since the last general registration, completed to and including the twentieth day prior to the primary, which shall be the last day on which any person may register or transfer his registration, so as to entitle him to vote at such primary.” (Pol. Code, sec. 1366.)