The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-04-02
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
full Text of the Decisions
Which Set Aside the
Election Extending
Law.
TWAS SPECIAL LEGISLATION
The Same Privileges Should Be
Extended to all Cities
in the State.

Special to the jersey Citr Netcs.
TRENTON, April 2. 1Ss7.-The following
is the full text of the opinion rendered
by Mr.. Justice Garrison, yesterday, in the
election extender case:-
The question to be decided is whether
An act relating to cities of the first
class in this State, and providing for the
holding of municipal or charter elections
therein, and regulating the terms of cleo
tive and a~ppOintive officers therein APP
proved March is, 1897, is a constitutional
enactment in view of Section VII, Ar
ticle II. of the Constitution, which for
bid the passage by the Legislature OF
internal affairs of towns and counties
inasmuch as the statute cited is admit
tedly a regulation of the internal affairs
of the cities affected by it, the inquiry
k this shape: May cities having a;
population of LOG, 600 and upwards be Sc
1ected from among the cities of this State
for the special regulation imposed by this
act? "A uniform line of decisions. ex-
pounding the constitutional provision re-
ultimate form, VIZ: Is the subject mat
ter of this act one that is naturally in
cident to mere excess of population?
The act deals with a single subject.
which is contained in the first six lines
OF its first section. All that, follows is
merely ancillary. The substantial pro-
vision referred to is in these words:-@I-
Hereafter in all cities of the first-class
in this State. all municipal officers, re-.
quired to be elected therein, Shall be-
voted for and elected on the first Tuesday
after the first Monday of November in
each year, and upon the same official
ballots required by law for the election
of State and county officers and not
From this language we must learn the
conditions that called forth the regula-
tion, in it discover the mischief of the
of remedial legislation applied by the law
maker. The matter is within a small
compass Thu condition that existed was
that elections to fill municipal offices
were held at a different time from those
at which county, State and Federal cleo
lions were held. The mischief, therefore,
whatever it may have been, was some
thing that inhered in the practice of vot-
ing separately for these purposes. The
remedy consists in the requirement that
municipal officers shall be voted for at
ed and upon the same ballot, In fine,
the mischief was that local affairs were
kept separate from State and National
politics, and the remedy is to bring them
together.
This remedy, it will be seen, operates
solely upon the individual voter. Its eff
fcacy depends wholly upon. the success
with which it brings to bear upon him
the influences set at work by the COM
raingling of what had previously been
kept separate. Else it is nc remedy, and
such is its ayowed purpose. Beyond this it
makes no claim 1t does not operate upon
the municipality itself. it adds no feature
to city government. creates no new Of
flee and enlargeS no public power. To the
voter alone it is addressed. Finding him
harnpered as an ~elector by the condition
referred to, 1t proposes. for the public
good, to expose him heneeforth to the in
uuenceS that will arise from the new
order that it Institutes.
Furthermore. the act is not limited to
its effect upon municipal affairs; and, as
the mischief is not a mere incident of
population but the result of a system in
no wise conditioned Upon numbers SO the
remedy is broader than. these, affecting
the voter in all of his relations to the
expression of the popular will.
This being beyond question both the |
purpose and effect of the law, it is in its
essence q declaration of public policy, |
and l believe I shall not err in aying |
that a legislative policy with respect to.
the influences to which the voters of a
State shall be subjected or from which
they shall be guarded in the act of suf-
frage cannot, under the organic law con-
strued by our courts, be limited to a spe-
cial class selected from a purely numeri-
cal basis. The distinction between such
a provision and those which are passed
upon in Mortland VS.. Christian (23 vroom,
SID and the other causes cites, is entirely
clear.
administrative details may be varied to
meet the exigencies of population, the
number of officers, their duties and eInolu-
2ments. the machinery for voting, the app
paratus for canvassing votes may be
changed to suit conditions that exist only
in the places affected, but whatever is to
influence the mine of the voter, to deter
mine his conduct as an elector and to find
expression in his ballot is necessarily a
matter of public policy and not a ques-
ton of local administration.
The benefcent results expected from
the statute now before us are all based
upon the claim that the popular viii can
be better expressed under the new law
than under the old. The statement is of
itself a definition of public policy and an
apt Illustration of such a rule.
"All regulations of the elective fran
chise," says Judge Cooley (Const. Lin,
impartial Thereby placing the instru.
same category with the right of taxation
with which it has, in this country at
least. always had an historical. associa-
ton. II this be not a correct view, then
the changes introduced by the adoption
augurated in certain places upon the
vision of the Election Law that prohibits
the solicitation of a voter within q hum
dred feet Of a polling place can today
be altered so as to exempt cities of a
certain class from its operation; or the
voter in cities of the first class may be
permitted to place a distinguishing mark
upon his ballot; or in a city of the third i
polling room. The sole reason why these
tinction to which l nave referred, Wis:
that regulations of the conditions that
shall surround a voter with the object of
influencing his conduct as an e~lector
are in their nature matters of public
policy and must find expression in the
general laws of the State.
If / am right in regard to this. the
statute under review is fatally Invalid.
in that the Legislature therein has pro-
vided that a voter in Newark or IN Ter
sey City or other city of o 10000 popula-
tion, shall cast his vote for municipal
officers under the current influence Of
State or National politics. and shall vote
upon these wider interests under condi-
tons wherein purely local issues ma
dominate; whereas elsewhere throughout
the State no such Influences are Merritt II
ted or experienced. The point is not that
this, policy is unwise and hence is, I'm