State v. Board of County Commissioners

200 P. 469, 28 Wyo. 30, 1921 Wyo. LEXIS 1
Wyoming Supreme Court·Decided September 10, 1921·No. No. 1063·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Blume, Justice.

The petition in the ease at bar alleges among other things that on April 6th, Í921, a resolution was duly passed by the board of county commissioners of • Sheridan County, Wyoming, to submit to the voters of the said county the question of issuing the bonds of the said county in the sum of $300,000.00 for the purpose of constructing roads, high7 ways, etc., and providing for a proclamation calling said [32]*32election; that said proclamation was made calling the election for May 10th, 1921; that pursuant to said call said election was held, and a majority of the votes cast thereat were in favor of the issuance of the said bonds, and that the defendant county will issue, negotiate, sell and dispose of the same unless prohibited from so doing by order of court, and that by so doing, a great burden of taxation will be added to the plaintiff, who is a tax payer of the said county, and who brings this action on behalf of himself and other tax payers of the said county; that said election is void for the reason that the said proclamation calling for the said election wholly failed to designate the place or places in the several election precincts of said county, where the electors should meet and deposit their ballots, and as a result of such failure, a large and substantial number of qualified voters of said county failed to receive notice and did not vote in said election. Plaintiff prays that a writ of prohibition be issued, prohibiting the said county from issuing the said bonds. A copy of the resolution of the said board is attached, which shows the action taken in fixing the date, calling for the election and providing for the notice of the said election. A copy of the proclamation is also attached which reads as follows: “Proclamation. Notice is hereby given that in accordance with an order of the board of county commissioners of Sheridan County, Wyoming, made and entered of record at a regular meeting held by them on April 6th, 1921, a special election of the qualified electors of Sheridan County, Wyoming, will be held in the said county and state on the 10th day' of May, A. D. 1921, in the manner prescribed by law to vote upon the following question, to-wit:” etc. Then it sets out the question, and is duly signed by the chairman of the board of the county commissioners and attested by the county clerk of said county. An answer was filed in said action alleging among other things that the said board of county commissioners duly established election districts, election precincts and polling places on July 7th, 1920, of which the voters re-[33]*33eeived notification by publication on July 14th, 1920; that the location of the said polling places remained unchanged up to and including May 10th, 1921; that all electors voting at the special election on May 10th, 1921, proceeded to and voted at the polling places so designated, and that no elector was misled or prevented from casting his or her vote as a result of the failure of the proclamation calling said election to state the polling places; that the vote cast at said bond election held on May 10th, 1921, was substantially the same as the vote cast at the last preceding bond election held in said county in May, 1919, and was a normal and usual vote for elections of this character in said county. A demurrer was filed to said answer, which was overruled, and the plaintiff below refusing to proceed further, judgment was entered for defendant below. The action is here on petition in error of plaintiff below to reverse the action of the lower court. The election in question was evidently called in pursuance to section 1334 of the statutes, as amended by chapter 67 of the Session Laws of 1921.

The only point raised in the record and the briefs is that the notice of the election did not state the polling places, and that therefore the election is void. The statute authorizing the election does not in terms state that to be a requisite, and it is a general rule, since elections are matters of statutory regulation, that the notice does not need to. contain anything more than the statute requires. (29 C. J. 99; Matter of Hamilton, 41 U. C. Q. B. 293; State ex rel. v. Ross, 160 Mo. App. 682, 143 S. W. 502.) The point therefore, for us to determine is, as to whether it is required by implication that such notice of the polling places be given in the proclamation of election. Time and place, it is said, is of the substance of an election (20 C. J. 101) and hence it is contended that the specific places should be pointed out where the voters may resort in order to deposit their ballots. It is, of course, true, that fair opportunity must be given the voters in order to express their wishes, but that is a matter primarily for the legislature to determine. [34]*34It does not at all, in actual experience, follow that because no'notice is published of the polling places that the voters will thereby be deprived of an opportunity to vote. Election precincts are ordinarily small. Our law provides for a separate one for every voting population of 400. A large proportion of voters, as we know by actual experience, never inquires and never finds out until the day of election where the polling places are located. No great harm would, ordinarily, result, even if no actual knowledge were conveyed thereof to the voters until election day, or until the actual opening of the polls by the judges. Persons interested in the election and the result thereof will ordinarily easily find the place where they may cast their vote. Hence, where the statute does not specifically provide, as it does not in this instance, that notice of the polling places shall be given in the proclamation of election, we should not, on the theory that the voters must not be deprived of an opportunity to vote, feel constrained to hold that such requirement is made by implication. The statute of course requires reference in the notice to the county where the election is to be held, and where that is done, as it was in this case, the requirement as to place is satisfied. The cases of State ex rel. v. Ross, supra, and State ex rel. v. Gordon, 242 Mo. 615, 147 S. W. 795, are instructive on the points above mentioned. In the first of these cases, the court among oth1 er things said:

“As to the time of the election no question is raised, but it is contended that while the statute does not in terms require the order or notice of election to designate the polling places, yet to follow the general rule, that time and place of an election is of its very substance, it is necessary to read into the statute the provision that the order and notice must designate the polling places, because the term “polling place” is synonymous with “place of election.” We do not think so. The term place has a great variety of meanings according to the connection in which it is used. * * * In the absence of a statute requiring a different construction [35]*35the place referred to means the territory within which the election is to be held and does not mean the polling places. * * * Neither the general election statute nor the' local option statute requires notice of the selection of polling places to be given.' The Legislature has not seen fit to require such a notice and the common experience of thé people has demonstrated that such a notice is not necessary. The election precincts are not usually large and the polling ‘places are easily found and as far as our knowledge goes no man has ever been deprived of his right to vote in either ■a general election or a local option election by not being able to find the polling place, and such a requirement of the law if enacted would serve no useful purpose at all.

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State v. Board of County Commissioners, 200 P. 469, 28 Wyo. 30, 1921 Wyo. LEXIS 1 (Wyo. 1921).

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