Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

tion, the inspectors shall again carefully compare all the books of registration, to see that they are identical as to their contents, and (after making and completing the separate list of the electors in cities of the first class, as provided in subdivision three of section thirty-two of the election law), shall certify as a board in the proper place provided therefor upon each such register that such register is a true and correct register of the persons enrolled by them in such district for the next ensuing election, and shall state the whole number of such persons so enrolled. In cities of the first class, at the close of the last day of registration, the chairman of the board of inspectors shall take from an inspector of opposite political faith from himself, the register of electors made by such inspector and shall file the same on the Monday after the last day of registration, if in the city of New York with the chief of the bureau of elections, if in the city of Brooklyn with the board of elections, and if in the city of Buffalo with the city clerk. Such register so filed, shall be a part of the record of the offices in which it is filed. The two other inspectors of opposite political faith from each other shall each retain their respective registers of electors for use on election day. All registers of electors shall at all reasonable hours be accessible for public examination and making copies thereof, and no charge of any kind shall be made for such examination or for any elector making a copy thereof. In cities of the first class the public copy of registration shall be used, if necessary, on election day by the inspector whose register was filed as herein provided by said chairman. Any person who shall alter, mutilate, destroy or remove from the place of registration the public copy of such registration, shall be guilty of a felony, and shall be punished upon conviction thereof by imprisonment in a state prison for not less than two nor more than five years, unless otherwise provided by law. If, in cities of the first class, the board of inspectors shall meet on the second Saturday before the election for the purpose of revising and correcting the register of electors in pursuance of an order of the supreme court, a justice thereof or a county judge, as provided in section thirtyone of the election law, the inspectors shall certify forthwith to the officer or board with whom the copy of the register is filed, the change or changes made upon such register in pursuance of such order. At any revision of registration for an election other than a general election, the quadruplicate register of electors for the last preceding general election shall be furnished to the

inspectors of election by the officer or board having the custody thereof, and the inspectors shall certify to the officer or board in cities of the first class with whom the registers are filed, the changes, additions or alterations made in such registers for such election. In the cities of the first class at the close of the canvass of the votes of any election, or within twenty-four hours thereafter the two copies of the register of electors used by the inspectors and the public copy thereof shall be filed respectively with the chief of the bureau of elections in the city of New York, and with the board of elections in the city of Brooklyn, and with the city clerk of Buffalo. In all election districts other than in cities of the first class, one copy of the register used on election day by the inspectors shall within twenty-four hours after the close of the election be filed in the office of the town or city clerk of the town or city in which such election district is, and the other copies with the county clerk. Such register of electors shall be carefully preserved for use at any election which may be ordered or held in either of such counties or cities, respectively, prior to the next ensuing general election, at which they may be required.

Subdivision 3. At the close of registration on the fourth day in the election districts in cities and villages of five thousand inhabitants or more, and at the close of registration on the second day in other districts, the board of inspectors shall forthwith certify to the officer or board charged with the duty of furnishing ballots to such district, the total number of electors enrolled in such district. In cities of the first class the inspectors of each district shall also furnish to the police at the close of each day of registration, the total number of electors enrolled on such day, in their respective districts.

§36. Subdivision 1. Delivery of blank books for registration certificates and instructions. - The secretary of state shall purchase wherever he deems it desirable for the best interests of the state a suitable number of blank books for register of electors, with blank certificates and brief instructions for registering the names of electors therein, in the forms respectively provided in subdivisions one and two of section thirty-two of the election law, at least four of such books for each board of inspectors in the state, and such number of extra copies thereof as in his judgment may be necessary for each county or city to replace lost or damaged registers before delivery to the inspect

ors.

Such register of electors shall have the leaves thereof indexed with the letters of the alphabet, beginning with the letter "A" for the first leaf, and so on. He shall transmit such registers, certificates and instructions to the county clerk of each county, except New York and Kings, and to the board of police commissioners of the city of New York, and to the board of elections of the city of Brooklyn, at least twenty days prior to the first day of registration for a general election in each year. The county clerk shall deliver such books to the town clerks of each town, and to the city clerk of each city in such county, by mail or otherwise, at least five days prior to the first day of registration, and such town clerks and city clerks, and the said boards in New York and Brooklyn, shall deliver such books to the inspectors before the hour set for registering the names of electors on the first day for registration. On the last day of registration, the board of police commissioners of the city of New York, the board of elections of the city of Brooklyn, and the city clerk of Buffalo shall furnish to each board of inspectors in their respective cities, blanks for the list of electors provided for in subdivision three of section thirty-two of the election law.

Subdivision 2. Delivery of previous registers and poll books to inspectors.- Each town clerk with whom the register of the last preceding general election in any election district, elsewhere than in a city or wholly within a village having five thousand inhabitants or more, shall have been filed, shall cause such register and one of the poll-books to be delivered to the board of inspectors of such district at the opening of its first meeting for If a new election district the registration for any election. shall have been formed in a town since such general election, the clerk of such town shall, before the first meeting for registration thereafter in such new election district, make a certified copy of each register for such general election of each election district out of which such new district shall have been formed, and shall cause such certified copy to be delivered to the board of inspectors of such new election district at the opening of such meeting for registration. Such board, at such meeting, shall place upon the register of electors all persons whose names are upon such copies who are qualified to vote in such election district at the election for which such meeting is held, except the names of persons who are required to personally appear for registration. If a new election district shall have been formed

in a city since such general election, the clerk or board with whom the register of electors for such last preceding general election shall have been filed shall, before the meeting of the inspectors of election of such new district for registration for any other election, make a certified copy of each register of electors for such last preceding general election of each election district out of which such new election district is formed, and the inspectors of such new election district shall, at such meeting for registration for such election, place upon the register of electors the names of all persons upon such copies who are qualified to vote in such election district at the election for which such meeting is held.

ARTICLE III.

Primaries, Conventions and Nominations.

Section 50. Definitions of primary and convention. 51. Notice of primary.

52. Organization and conduct of primaries.

53. Qualifications of voters at primaries.

54. Duties of chairman of primary.

55. Watchers and canvass of votes at primaries.

56. Party nominations.

57. Independent nominations.

58. Places of filing certificates of nominations.

59. Times of filing certificates of nominations.

60. Certification of nominations by secretary of state.

61. Publication of nominations.

62. Lists for town clerks and aldermen.

63. Posting town and village nominations.
64. Declination of nomination.

65. Objections to certificates of nominations.
66. Filling vacancies in nominations.

§ 50. Definitions of primary and convention. - As used in this article, a convention is an assemblage of delegates representing a political party or independent body, duly convened for the purpose of nominating candidates for office, electing delegates to conventions, electing officers for party organizations, or for the transaction of any other business relating to the affairs or conduct of the party or independent body; and a primary is any other assemblage of voters of a political party or independent body duly convened for any such purpose.

A convention or primary meeting, within the meaning of this statute, is an organized assemblage of voters or delegates, representing a political party, which, at the last election before the call of such convention, polled at least one per centum of the entire vote cast in the district for which the nomination was made. Matter of Cowie, 33 N. Y. St. Rep., 710. It is the convention that the act recognizes, and to give to a county convention, or a state or county committee, power to say which of two bodies claiming to be the regular party convention, and which has each made a nomination, is the regular party convention, is giving the county convention or the state committee the power to make the nomination in the district, and not the convention elected as prescribed by the party and in accordance with its usages. Id. No supervisory power over the action of the local convention is given by the statute to either the county or state committee, or to a county convention called for the nomination of candidates for a county or city office. Neither the clerk or the court has power to decide between the claims of rival factions of political party. Id. Where a certificate of nomination by a conven. tion of a party is filed, and no objections are filed within the time specified in the statute, the clerk is bound to recognize the person named as the regular nominee of the party. Id. Certificates of nomination, which are in apparent conformity with the provisions of the act, shall be deemed valid unless objections thereto shall be made in writing within three days after the filing of the same. Id.

a

The definition of a convention or primary has been somewhat changed by section 50 of the present act, but not so as to affect the principle laid down in the above cited case.

The election law, in a variety of ways, recognizes that, under our system of governmemt, the affairs of the state are conducted through the medium of the representatives of political parties, and that, of necessity, such parties must, to a certain extent, provide for their conduct certain rules and regulations which are not inaptly termed party machinery. Matter of Redmond, 5 Misc. 369.

In section 50 of this act, provision is made for the conduct of political parties by means of conventions and primaries, and by such rules and regulations as those bodies may adopt. Id. But, independent of said act, it is a fact so well known and of such long continued existence as to entitle it to judicial recognition, that political parties have their territorial divisions, and that, while each division is within certain limitations a law unto itself so far as the particular territory it assumes to represent is concerned, yet, by party usage, each of such divisions owes and yields allegiance to some higher power. Id.

Where a person allies himself with a political party he tacitly acknowledges allegiance to all the rules and regulations of that party, as enunciated or expressed by what party usage recognizes as the supreme or superior authority of the organization. Id. The recognition of this principle does not compel one to follow blindly the dictates of party or vote for incompetent or unfit candidates. Id. He still possesses the inalienable right of severing, either permanently or temporarily, his party relations. Id. Neither does it prevent any person, with a sufficient number of followers, who desires his election to any office, from being a candidate for that office in the manner provided by the statute. Id. But he cannot claim to be a nominee or representative of a political party unless he has been first regularly nominated by that party. Id. What constitutes such regularity depends upon the usages of party itself, and not upon any rules or regulations which may seem just and proper to courts and judges. Id.

An applicant who has received his nomination at the hands of a convention whose claims to regularity have been submitted to the supreme authority within the party and, by that body, been declared unfounded, cannot be regarded as a regular nominee of his party, and is, consequently, not entitled to have his name printed upon the official party ballot. Id.

Courts will interfere in contests between factions of a political party only in cases where there has been no adjudication of the question of regularity by some division of the party which is conceded to be superior in point of authority to the one in which the contention arose, provided, of course, that the question of good faith in the making of such adjudication is not involved. Matter of Pollard, 55 St. Rep. 155.

When the majority of those whose seats are uncontested, decide as to who of the contestants should be admitted to a convention or committee, party loyalty and obedience to party usage require the minority to acquiesce. Matter of Broat, 6 Misc. 445.

« AnteriorContinuar »