The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1884-11-15
THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE
COUNTY SEAT QUESTION.
l,oi2 Votes Polled-clifton sos.

Inasmuch as Onida lays claim to the
county seat and the fact that many are
not acquainted with the law governing
the question, to show that it is retained
at Clifton beyond question of doubt,
we herewith append the section of the
statute relating to it, verbatim ct liter
atum, as taken from the codes Of the
Territory, revised in 1888.
30. COUNTY SEAT LOCATED BY
MAJORITY VoTE. When any county
shall be organized as herein provided
the qualified voters thereof are hereby
empowered to select the place of the
county seat, by ballot, ut the first gen
eral election ut which the county Off
GERS are chosen, and for this purpose
each voter may designate on his bal
lot the place OF his choice for the coun-
ty seat; and when the votes are can
vassed the place having the majority
of all votes poled shall be the county
seat, and public notice of said location
shall be given within thirty days by
the county commissioners, by posting
up notices in three several places in
each precinct in the county; and if no
one place voted for shall have ma
jority of all votes cast, the place as 10
Gated temporarily by the county com.
,,;ue;n,.r, ,h,ll ra,,a;p th ha ,nupfy cao,
until changed, as provided in the next
section.
1t will thus be seen that leach voter
NAY designate on his ballot the place
Of his choice for county seat; not that
he SHALL. Taking Sully county for
au illustration, if any voter failed to
vote for Onida, Fairbank or any other
place it is proof positive that he did
not desire to have it moved from Cliff
ton, else he would have SO voted. The
courts have so sustained time an"
again. The law further says: "And
/ when the votes are canvassed the place
having the MAJORITY OF ALL VOTES
PoLLED shall be the county seat. On
the face of the returns it is an indis-
putable fact that there were l.Ol2
VOTES poLLED in Sully county on the
4th of November, 1884, and that no
place received a MAJORITY of this num-
ber, hence the county seat remains Mt
Clifton.
Still, again, it will be observed that
the law says that "if no one place vo
ted for shall have MAJORITY OF ALI
THE VOTES CAST, the place as located
temporarily by the county commits
sioners shall remain the county seat
until changed, as provided in the next
section" In accordance with the law
1t is plain TO all that had there not
been a single vote cast for Clifton, un-
less majority of all the voters of the
county had expressed themselves at
the polls in favor of its removal, the
county seat would still remain at Clifton.
To still further emphasize the ques-
ton and show that the people of Onida
understood the law before election, we
quote the following from circular dis
tributed in its interest: According to
the statute law in order to change the
county seat some one town must re-
ceive, not a plurality, but majority,
(more than e-half) of all the votes
cast. In case no town receives a ma
jority it remains where located at pres.
ent, so that a vote for Onida is equiva-
lent toa vote for Clifton rs against
Fairbank That is, supposing there
are 500 votes cast, Fairhank must re-
ceive at least 40l in order to succeed