The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-10-16

$ IN the language Of the Mount Morris case if
any voter could have any doubt about 1t, all,
= he had to DO was to go to the records of the
fc'y council IN the office of the city clerk and
mere ne would ind that the places had been
: designated. ana MAT the time had becd desig-
n"'en' anu 'he law taught him that he
had light To vote on this question of minor.
! ity representation.
I This salute (seclion 53) which saws il shall
be submitted, proceeds Immediately TO pre.
; scribe the duties which are to be performed
: in that connections, and it does not saw anv
! thing about the mayor doing anything, but il
says the ballots shall be in the following
{ form, &c. These ballots were printed by or.
der of the common council before the cleo.
ton was held and distributed before the cleo.
1 ton was held So says the plea, and so II ia
admitted by the demurrer.
All these proceedings were published the
next day after they were had in the CORPORA
ton newspaper. and it Is the law that the or.
dinances and resolutions Of the city council
60 into effect and are binding upon all the
citizens immediately after they nave been
published in the corporation newspaper. So
that they had the notice 1t is said, however,
that if they had gone and found this record
they would have found ninety-two places for
voting and this was afterwards changed. This
! is not correct. This plea does not show that
!
! There was no substantial change of places
Ii WAS merely reduction of the Number of
voting places. Ii was ascertained that large
number of the ninety.two polling places men.
, toned in the first resolution could not be had
for the purposes of this election, and there.
upon the city council. six days before the
election, passed resolution designating one
| place IN each ward as the voting places; and
that halt OF these places were identically the
same with the places named in the first rcs0
| luton, and that the remaining half were in
substance the same; that is to say, they were
in such close proximity to those named in
the original resolution that any party coming
to the former places for the purpose of voting
would necessarily perceive where the election
was being held, and then 1t Is added that BY
reason OF these notices and publications in
the corporation newspaper, and the publica-
lions and discussions IN the daily papers. ii
was VIGOROUSLY known to the voters that this
election was to be held that day, and the
places where it was to be held land was held)
were generally known to the voters, and then
it is added that no voter was deprived of the
privilege OF voting nj that election by reason
of want of knowledge or a want of ade-
quate means Of knowledge as 10 the time,
place and subject matter of the election.
The gentlemen undertake to make a play
on this alternative phrase of want of knOw
edge or adequate means of knowledge. III
they examine that sentence they Will see thaty
the voters had not only the means of knowl.
edge but the knowledge ITSELF
We say in our plea no man suffered from
the want Of either, and therefore they had
both and they confessed this by their demur
rcrs. They come here and say this court will
not b. leve that TO be true. If 1t were not
true, then they ought to have travcrsed it and
had the fact tried, and then he might have
had some other state Of facts to be passed on
by this court. They come in and confess it by
their demurrer.
The question as 10 the sufficiency Of the
notice cannot be settled by a reference to any
one isolated case. Each case depends upon
its own facts and the language Of the statute
under which it proceeds. The only true
principles which are evolved from all the
cases is not hard to discover. Notice of some
kind is essential to all elections. 1t may ,un
less expressly 70 hidden, be either actual or
constructive. Where the time, place and sub
.ect matter Of an election are each fixed by
law, in such cGs2, although the statute may
prescribe given form of notice, the form Tor
even the giving at all of such statutory no.
lice is not essential; for the plain reason that
the voters knowing the law have constructive F
notice, and in such case, unless the statute |
provides expressly the contrary, the election
will not be INVALID for want OF notice.
Again, where the statute prescribes what
the notice shall be, if the terms of the statute
be strictly complied with, no want Of actual
will prevail to set aside an cleo
ton, for in such case the voter has construc-
tive notice, and that is sufficient. Nor In such
a case will any sparcity OF voting impair the
election.
Suppose there is an election held for shcr-
i'll, the notice required by the statute is gwen
and the forms required by statute are all
with, and one single voter goes to
one single polling place and casts his vote,
and there is no other poll opened and no other
vote cast anywhere else, would not that be
valid? There is no doubt about it at all, and
for the reason that every requirement OF the
statute is fulfilled and actual notice to the
voters is not essential. Take now case
where the election was not called ia confor
nifty with the forms Of the statute. In such
case the courts eEqulre whether the things
which were TO be accomplished by the notice
and by the other statutory proceedings have
been in fact accomplished, so that all the
ends of the law have been accomplished. III
such be the facts, the courts Will not disturb
the result of the election for want of construc-
tive notice directed by the statute, unless the
statute be express that the want of the form
shall be fatal If this were otherwise, all
elections would fail. No election in the
world was ever held and conducted through
out in strict conformity to the forms prescrlh-
ed 1T follows that where every end to be
10y the forms prescribed by the
statute has been accomplished without the
forms, the election must stand, unless there
be positive provision Of the statute that the
form prescribed shall be essential or the want
of it fatal. This upon the ground that unless
expressly provided notice IN tact
in any form is as good or better than mere
constructive notice, however formal.
Wherever there has been an election set
aside by reason of the informally or mac
curracy of the proceedings, in all the cases
cited, it is always found on the face OF tlie
record, in such case that that irregularityy
might have defeated some of the substantial
ends contemplated by the statute In ms
case il is otherwise. No case has been pro-
luced-none can be found-where any court