Mathews v. State Election Board

1978 OK 113, 582 P.2d 1318, 1978 Okla. LEXIS 471
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedAugust 11, 1978
DocketNo. 52590
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1978 OK 113 (Mathews v. State Election Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mathews v. State Election Board, 1978 OK 113, 582 P.2d 1318, 1978 Okla. LEXIS 471 (Okla. 1978).

Opinions

SIMMS, Justice.

Petitioner, a declared candidate for District Judge, Seventh Judicial District, Oklahoma County, ’Office No. 14, seeks mandamus to require the State Election Board to strike the name of Intervenor, Joe Cannon, who filed his declaration for the same office, from the November, 1978, general election non-partisan judicial ballot; or in the alternative, command the Board to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine if in-tervenor will have been a bona fide resident of Oklahoma for a period of six months next preceding the November 1978 general election.

Timely contest to intervenor’s candidacy was filed with Respondent Board, alleging in essence that Cannon had not been a resident of the State of Oklahoma long enough so that he will have been a resident of the State of Oklahoma at least six months next preceding November 7, 1978, the date of the general election for the office of District Judge, and therefore, Cannon is not a qualified elector within the meaning of Art. VII, Sec. 8, and Art. Ill, Sec. 1, of the Oklahoma Constitution. The Board dismissed petitioner’s contest without hearing evidence.

Verified pleadings on file in this Court allege that Intervenor Cannon was formerly a resident of Oklahoma and held the office of District Judge in Oklahoma City until February 13, 1978, the date his resignation for that office became effective. That after the effective date of the resignation, Cannon departed this State with the intention of making the State of Florida his permanent residence after accepting a position as a Federal Administrative Law Judge in Tampa, Florida. The petition for mandamus further alleges that Intervenor, sometime in the month of June, 1978, returned to Oklahoma, but that he will not have resided in this state for the allegedly required six months before election. Petitioner concludes that Cannon is therefor not a “qualified elector” and is ineligible for election as District Judge.

The pivotal issue is whether there exists in Oklahoma a legally valid durational residency requirement of at least six months as one of the qualifications to become a candidate for District Judge.

Title 20, O.S.1971, § 92a, enacted first in 1941, provides in part: “ * * * and they [District Judges] shall possess the qualifications prescribed by Section 9, Article 7, of [1320]*1320the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma.” The 1941 qualification by statutory reference to the Constitution has neither been expressly repealed nor amended by the Legislature. Article VII, Sec. 9, of the Constitution, which was in effect at the time § 92a was enacted in 1941, provided, inter alia, a District Judge “shall have been a resident of the territory embraced within the State for two years, and of the territory composing his district at least one year, prior to his election." (Emphasis Added) Article VII, as ratified in 1907 and in effect in 1941, was repealed and a new Article VII adopted in 1967 by vote of the people. The 1967 adoption of a new Article VII totally negates the § 92a reference to old Article VII, Sec. 9, because of the 1967 repeal, and Oklahoma no longer has a two-year or one-year durational residency requirement to be qualified as a district judge.

The present Art. VII, Sec. 8(g) provides that a candidate for District Judge “shall have had prior to election or appointment * * *; shall be a qualified elector of the respective district * * *.” No specific durational residency requirements are contained in the new Art. VII for District Judge candidates.

“Qualified elector” is defined in Art. Ill, Sec. 1, Okl. Const., as a citizen of the United States and the State “who has resided in the state at least six months, in the county two months, etc.”

Petitioner’s legal argument is that Inter-venor Cannon is not a qualified elector within the provisions of Art. VII, because Cannon has not been a resident of Oklahoma six months prior to election. Mathews concludes that if Cannon is not a “qualified elector” under Art. Ill, he isn’t qualified to be a District Judge under the provisions of Art. VII.

Aside from 20 O.S.1971, § 92a, supra, which no longer controls, the statutes are void of any specified durational residency requirement for a candidate for district judge. Therefore, we are called upon to consider the constitutionality of the six months durational residency requirement found in Art. Ill, of Oklahoma’s Constitution.

The United States Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330, 92 S.Ct. 995, 31 L.Ed.2d 274 (1972), struck down Tennessee’s one year durational residency requirement for voters as violative of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Dunn, supra, held:

“Durational residence laws penalize those persons who have traveled from one place to another to establish a new residence during the qualifying period. Such laws divide residents into two classes, old residents and new residents, and discriminate against the latter to the extent of totally denying them the opportunity to vote. The constitutional question presented is whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment permits a State to discriminate in this way among its citizens. .
* * * * * *
“Obviously, durational residence laws single out the class of bona fide state and county residents who have recently exercised this constitutionally protected right, [the freedom to travel throughout the United States], and penalize such travelers directly.”

A Three-Judge District Court, Godbold, Circuit Judge, in Hadnott v. Amos, 320 F.Supp. 107 (1970), held, in part, that an Alabama constitutional amendment and statute requiring that a voter reside within the county for six months and in the precinct for three months immediately preceding election were violative of equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Petitioner attempts to distinguish Dunn, supra; and Hadnott, supra, from the case at bar because both dealt with durational residency requirements of voters, not candidates.

To support his contention that durational residency requirements for candidates are constitutionally permissible, petitioner cites Draper v. Phelps, 351 F.Supp. 677 (1972). Draper upheld the validity of durational residency requirements of a candidate in [1321]*1321Oklahoma for the House of Representatives, as provided in 14 O.S.1971, § 108, which reads:

“In order to file as a candidate for the House of Representatives in any of the representative districts, the candidate must have been a qualified registered elector in such district for at least six (6) months immediately preceding the filing period prescribed by law . . ” (Emphasis Added)

Petitioner also places reliance upon Fleak v. Allman, 420 F.Supp. 822 (1976) which also addressed the issue of the constitutionality of 14 O.S.1971, § 108. The Fleak court followed the rationale of the Draper opinion and held that the “State does have a compelling interest ‘in preventing frivolous and fraudulent candidacy’ ” by disqualifying the “carpet bagger”, thus upholding the dura-tional residency requirement for candidacy to the House of Representatives.

Hadnott v. Amos, supra,

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Related

Freeman v. State Election Board
1998 OK 107 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
1978 OK 113, 582 P.2d 1318, 1978 Okla. LEXIS 471, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mathews-v-state-election-board-okla-1978.