Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-22
PRIMARY UNDER
PURlTIES LAW
CANDIDATES MUST DECLARE
EXPENSES
CITY ATTORNEY ANSWERS HARD
coNUNDRuM
Hewitt corrects Erroneous Impression
About Alphabetical Arrangement
of Names on Ballot at
Election

A candidate is a candidate when he
has submitted himself to be voted on
by the people, whether at a primary
or general election, is the way City
Attorney Leslie r. Hewitt has an
swered the hard conundrum that has
been propounded to him.
According to the decision of the city
attorney, every man whose name ap-
pears on the official ballot at the pri-
purity of elections" law and file a
statement of his expenses just as
though he actually ran for office and
not for nomination for the office.
In a letter addressed to the city
clerk yesterday Mr.. Hewitt also an
swered another question that was so
simple it hardly seemed necessary to
answer it. yet by a misstatement in
morning paper an erroneous impress
sion had gone abroad and this Mr.
Hewitt corrects.
The statement was made that can
didates' names would be put on the
ballot according to the alphabetical
arrangement of their given names
instead of their surnames This Is
not true, Mr.. Hewitt says; they will
appear according to the first letter of
their surnames, but the first name will
precede the last name and the arr
rangement will not be as it is in the
directory. Mr. Hewitt makes the fol-
lowing statement in this matter:
with reference to the arrangement
of the names of candidates upon the
primary election ballot I beg to say:
Section 206-1 of the charter pro-
vides as follows:
1.-The names of the candidates for
each office shall be arranged on the
ballot of the primary nominating
election in alphabetical order
"The order in which names appear
will be determined by the initial let
ter of the surnames of the candidates.
but the names should be printed in
the usual and ordinary manner, with
the given name preceding the sur
name.
For example: For the office of
mayor petitions for the following can
didates have been filed:
James B. Hurley. w Scott Lewis,
George Alexander, George A. Smith,
William c. Mushet, Oscar E. Parish
and ]. w. Jones.
"FoR MAYOR
George Alexander.
oscar E. Parish.
James B. Hurley.
~. W. Jones.
"W. Scott Lewis.
william c. Mushet.
George A. Smith.
Same Method for All
"The same rule will apply to all other
offices and candidates, observing in
each instance the rule of alphabetical
order of the surnames. An erroneous
impression seems to have gained
some prevalence regarding this mat
ter, owing to an item which appeared
yesterday in one of the papers to the
effect that the city attorney had ruled
that in arranging names of the can
didates the "given" name and not the
surname" is to be considered The
only ruling which the city attorney
has made upon the subject Of printing
the names of the candidates upon the
ballots was the advice heretofore given
to you, to the effect that the names
should not be printed with the sur
name first, and that for the purposes
of the election law a candidates name
was not, for instance, Alexander
George but George Alexander Such
a system of arrangement, by order of
surnames placed first is appropriate
for directory or telephone list, but
the candidates names on a ballot at
an election should be printed in the
accepted and legal form, no matter
how long the list.
IT write you this in order to correct
the erroneous impression arising from
the publication of the item to which
I have referred The writer of the
item mentioned above certainly misap-
pretended the purport of the direc-
tions given your office, as above stated
upon this Subject. My attention was
called to this matter today and there
fore I have thought 1t necessary to
rectify 1t at once. The error was, of
course, not intended by the writer Of
the notice, but in the interest of all
parties concerned it should be cor
rected"