Ashe v. Zemansky

WILBUR, C. J.

The petitioner, a taxpayer of the city and county of San Francisco, prays for a writ of mandate directed to the respondent, who is the registrar of voters of the city and county of San Francisco, requiring the respondent .to print the ballots for the coming municipal election to be held in November, in accordance with the charter provisions of the charter of the city and county of San Francisco (art. XI, c. 2, sec. 19 of the charter of the city and county of San Francisco). He alleges that

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the board of election commissioners and the respondent have determined to conduct the election in accordance with the general laws of the state of California, purporting to act under and in pursuance of section 14 of chapter 2, article XI, of the charter of the city and county of San Francisco, amended by the people of San Francisco in 1922 and approved by the legislature in 1923. This section of the charter as thus amended reads as follows: “In the event of the use of voting machines the arrangement of the ballot, the counting of the vote, the canvass of returns and the determination of the result shall be governed by the general laws of the state.”

It is alleged that the board of election commissioners have adopted a resolution providing for the purchase and use of fifty-two voting machines within the city and county of San Francisco, which contains over six hundred precincts.

The charter of the city and county of San Francisco nowhere expressly .authorizes, the use of voting machines, nor does it expressly confer jurisdiction upon the board of supervisors or the board of election commissioners to adopt voting machines. The respondent predicates the authority of the board of election commissioners to act in the adoption of the voting machines upon section 1 of article XI, chapter 1, which reads as follows: “The conduct, management, and control of the registration of voters, and of the holding of elections, and of all matters pertaining to elections in the city and county, .shall be vested exclusively in and exercised by a Board of Election Commissioners, consisting of five members, who shall be appointed by the Mayor, and shall hold office for four years. ...”