Election law

[John Nagle]

Now that the presidency appears -- subject to another recount -- to depend
upon previously obscure election law rules, I refer you to a source I have
consulted only rarely in recent years.  29 C.J.S. section 158(b) describes
the law governing the arrangement of names on a ballot, while 29 C.J.S.
section 182 considers "double or conflicting marking."  The latter section
includes the statement that "a ballot marked for opposing candidates for an
office . . . must be rejected as to that office."  Among the numerous cases
cited for that proposition is State ex rel. Carpenter, 198 So. 49 (Fla.
1940), where two candidates for county commissioner tied with 1,193 votes
pending the disposition of two contested ballots.  The court counted one of
those ballots despite the failure of the voter to place his or her "X" in
the right place because the court could determine the intention of the
voter.  The court didn't count the other ballot because the voter placed an
"X" next to both of the candidates.  More generally, I still cannot find
anything in CJS (or any other source) which presents a request to
invalidate an election -- or part of an election -- because the ballot
confused some of the voters.

I note all of that with trepidation because I never imagined that the
answer to who will be our next President might be found within the pages of
Corpus Juris Secundum. -- John


John Copeland Nagle
Associate Professor
Notre Dame Law School
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(219) 631-9407
(219) 631-4197 (fax)