The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-10-20
Attorney General on the Registration Law

Attorney General on the heBlstration Law
The Attorney General yesterday
promulgated the following opinion
for the county judge of Tarrant coun-
ty:
Hon. D. W. Harris, County Judge, Tarrant
County:
DEAR SIR Your letter of Oct. 2 is
received. You ask whether, under
the registration law recently enacted,
it is legal to place the name of any one
candidate on the ticket more than
once. This department has carefully
considered every article and section
of the registration law and the Revis-
ed Statutes, and has concluded that
it is NOT legal to place the name OF
any one candidate for office on the
ballot more than once.
Article 1894, Revised Statutes, in re-
gard to ballots, reads: "All ballots
shall be- written or printed on plain
white paper without any picture, de-
vice or stamp mark, except the writ
ing or printing in black ink or black
pencil, of the names of the candidates
and the several offices to be filled, and
except the name of the political party
whose candidates are on the ticket;
provided such ballots may be written
or printed on plain white foolscap,
leg al cap, or letter paper"
Thus it is apparent that the legisla-
ture has provided that only the names
of the candidates and the parties to
which they may belong can be placed
upon the ballot. The Legislature, con-
sidering the context of this article, in
tended to restrict the printing on the
tickets to the names of the candidates
and their parties.
Section "a, page II of The acts
OF the called session Of the Twenty
second legislature, approved April II,
1892, reads: "All ballots used by the
voters at said election shall be fur
nished by the officers conducting said
election upon which shall be printed
the names of all candidates for state,
county and precinct officers (otfices)
upon one ticket and arranged accord
ing to the respective parties to which
the candidates may belong, and
whenever q voter has been furnished
with ballot by any officer conduct
ing the election the presiding officer
shall stamp with rubber stamp pro-
vided for this purpose the words
A'ofiicial BALLOT and no ballot cast
without said words stamped upon 1t
by the said presiding officer shall be
counted at said election"
BY this article the names of all the
candidates could be placed on one
ticket, and their names must be ar
which they belong.
See article 1907, which reads: "No
ballot which is not numbered as pro.
vided in article 1894 shall be counted,
nor shall either two or more ballots
be counted, and where the names OF
two or more persons are upon ballot
for the same office, when but one per-
son is to be elected to that office, such
ballot shall not be counted for either
of such persons"
Constituting these statutes together.
1 am fully convinced that the legisla-
ture intended toSpermit each candi-
date to have his name placed
upon the official ballot, once,
where the names of all candi-
dates of all parties must be arranged
according to their political faith. This
method permits every voter to cast
his ballot for the candidate of his
choice, and no matter to what party
that candidate may belong or where
his name may be found, the voter can
vote for him as conveniently where he
finds such candidates name on the
ticket, as if he found it there num-
Der of times.
In order to express his choice II IS
only necessary for the voter to mark
out the names of those candidates not
his choice and he thereby leaves the
candidate of his choice on the ticket
to be counted, no matter where there
on the name is found.
See also: McCreary on Elections,
Secs. 800, 4O5; Paine on Elections, Secs.
$50, 554. Very respectfully,
r.. l.. HENRY,
A ssistant Attorney General.