The San Francisco call., 1899-10-24
Grounds Urged
to Support
the Appeal.

An act to regulate the registration of voters,
and to secure the purity of elections in the
city and county of San Francisco" passed
March IS, 1875 they were invalid and that the
charter adopted thereat was invalid. and con-
fers no authority TO hold election Tor the
offices therein named. The particulars in which
the invalidity of the elections is urged are that
the Board of Election Commissioners had no
authority TO consolidate the election precincts
or to omit precinct registration and that they
dld not appoint proper election boards for the
precincts in which the elections held.
The act of 1878 was special act relating to
san francisco alone, and a the adoption of
the constitution of 1879 formed part of the
cnarter OF that city and county. BY its pro
Visions the conduct, management and control
or elections and matters pertaining to elections
was taken from the Board of Supervisors, which
under the Political Code, then exercised this
power in other parts of the State. and was con-
ferred upon the Board of Election Commission
ers therein created Section of article X of the
constitution of 1879. originally adopted, after
directing the Legislature to provide by general
laws for the organization of cities and towns
declared that ''cities towns heretofore or
hereafter organized, and all charters thereof
framed adopted by authority of this con-
general laws In Staude Election Com
missioners 81 Cal. 321. 1t said that the
effect of this section that San Francisco
shall be subject to and controlled by such
general laws as the Legislature shall enact,
other than those for the incorporation, organl-
Zation and classification IN proportion TO popu-
lation of cities and towns" The Political Code
is general law whose force extends through
out the State. and. in the absence OF any
qualifying words, the Legislature must be
deemed to intend that its provision shall have
uniform operation in all parts of the State,
and it was held in the case just cited that an
amendment to section 4l09 of the Political Code
by which the time for the election of all city
and county officers was made uniform through
out the State superseded a provision in the
charter of San Francisco providing different
time for the election of those officers within
that city and county. In 1889 the Legislature
amended several sections of this code relating
to elections by extending their provisions to
each of the counties and cities and counties of
the State. and by placing every board having
charge and control of elections in the same
category with the Board of Supervisors in each
of the counties of the State, and making the
same provisions for cities and counties as for
counties. BY so doing it is manifest that it
was the intention of the Legislature that its
provisions should be operative in San Fran
cisco The city and county of San Francisco
was the only political subdivision of the State
in which any board other than the Board of
Supervisors had the control and management
of elections and as said in Staude's case,
we know judicially that 1t was the only city
and county in the State To the extent, there
fore that these amendments are inconsistent
with or variant from the provisions of the act
OF March 49, 1873 the latter is superseded and
the city and county is subject to and controlled
by the provisions of the Political Code.
BY the act of 1878 the Board of Election
Commissioners was required TO divide the city
and county into