Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-02
STATE HOUSE.
Opinion Of Justices Of
Supreme Judicial Court,
On County Clerk" Question Of
the September Election.
Annual Report Of Dr. \. S. Burrage,
State Historian.
STATE HOUSE CALENDAR.
Next Meeting Of Governor and Council
Friday, Dec. 16, at 10 A. M.

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at the executive department of the
receipt from the justices of the SUI
preme judicial court of Maine of an
opinion rendered at the request of
Governor t'ernald in answer to GER
tain questions touching on the general
election held in Maine in September
1910. In a letter to the justoceS Gov
ernor Fernald asked their opinion on
the following statement of fact and
questions:
statement. r. S. Chapter 81, Sec
ton 1, provides as follows: Clerks of
the judicial courts shall be elected
and notified their elections determined
and vacancies filled in the same man.
ner, and they shall enter upon the
discharge Of their duties at the same
time as is provided respecting county
commissioners, but they shall hold
their offices for four years
r. S. Chapter 6, section 50 provides,
among other things, that the Governor
and Council, by the first day of De-
ccmbcr in each year in which an cleo
ton is held, shall open and compare
tho votes returned as being thrown
for certain public officers. among those
courts.
Said Chapter. 6. Section 80, further
provides that the persons having the
highest number of votes. not exceed
ing the number to be chosen, shall be
declared elected: and they shall be
notified thereof by the secretary of
state and enter upon the discharge of
official duties on the first day of .Janu-
AIRY thereafter; and said Section SO ex-
plicitly states that it, the said section,
shall be applied in determining the
election of all county officers.
Chapter 1873 of the Public Laws of
1909 amended Section 5.of Chapter so
by adding thereto the word the clerk
of the county commissioners shall be
known as the county clerk"
At the general election held in Sep
TENDER, 1910, certain persons We're to
be elected who had been nominated in
county conventions to the office of
clerks of judicial courts. In the
printing of the official ballot the names
of those persons instead Of being
printed under a designation Of clerks
Of judicial courts" were printed under
"a designation county clerks" The
not for clerk OF the judicial courts.
Question /. Was the election of a
candidate TO the office of county clerk
equivalent to the election Of the same
candidate to the office of clerk of
judicial courts?
Question > Was there Il failure to
elect clerks oi the judicial courts
when the ballots We're cast for county
clerks
Question B. Will Il vacancy Occur Jan
ualy first. 1911 in the office of clerk of
judicial courts in those counties where
candidates were voted for under the title
If county clerks"
Question 1. Should Il new election for
the clerks of judicial courts be ordered
in those counties where the vote was
thrown for county clerk?
Question :. Should an appointment he
made in those counties instead of an
election. ana if 50 rs whom ana for what
term?
Question 6. Shall the persons who re-
ccived the highest number of votes for
county clerks be notified that they are
elected clerks of judicial courts, or shall
they he Motif d that they have been
elected county clerks
Text of the Opinion.
Replying to Governor Fernald's letter
the text of the opinion rendered by the
justices is as follows
To the Honorable Bert NJ Fernald. Gov
ernor of Maine:
In obedience to the Constitution OF the
state. the undersigned Justices of the
supreme judicial Court, have the honor
10 Submit the following answers TO the
questions proposed
The statutes respecting the regulation
and conduct of elections in TINS State
provide that "all ballots cast in elections
for national. state district and county
officers. shall be printed ana DIS
trihuted at public expense, r. S. en-. b.
soc. I. and that every general ballot, or
ballot intended for the use of voters
= stall contain the names ana resi-
dences of all candidates whose
nominations for any office specified IN the
ballot have been duly made, ana
the office for which they have been sew
erallv nominated" r. S. Oh. 9, sec. ~.
The provision of the statute that the
ballot prepared and distributed by the