Los Angeles herald., 1910-04-10
PROVIDES OPINION ON
PRIMARY ELECTION LAW
Deputy District Attorney Shaw
Declares InStaIIment Plan
Petitions Are Not Legal

In reply to a request by County
Clerk c. G.. Keyes for information re-
garding two points in the primary law
the district attorneys office, through
its deputy, Hartley Shaw yesterday
gave opinions on the law which are
of considerable interest in view Of
the approaching primary election in
August. The Interpretation of the
law by Shaw is that candidates de-
string to have their names on the Of
fetal primary ballot cannot Gle NOM
| ination papers on the installment plan.
and that the county clerk must disre-
gard the names Of persons who do
not declare their party affiliations
when they register.
Keyes' first question was, whether a
candidate. after he has filed a set of
papers which are examined by the
clerk and found to be insufficient to
entitle him to a place on the ballot.
] may file additional papers within the
time limit provided by law in order
( to bring the number Of legal sigma
lures up to the registered percentage.
This question is a difficult matter"
said Attorney Shaw. The primary
! law as a whole is not in satisfactory
shape. II appears on its face to be
patchwork composed of provisions
taken from various sources, without
proper care being taken by it's trainers
to see that the various pieces fitted
neatly together"
Quoting the law on the subject
Shaw said:
THE name OF no candidate shall be
printed on an official ballot to be used
at any primary election unless at least
thirty days prior to the primary cleo
tion. IL "a candidate is to be voted for
at the August primary election
when nomination papers shall have
been received which contain 10 per
cent OF the total vote. the officer with
whom such papers are required to be
filed shall not receive or file further
nomination papers for the candidate.
MUST FILE PAPERS TOGETHER
II am Of the opinion" said Shaw,
that the intention of the law is that
a candidate must file all of his pa
pers at one time. There is no APP
parent reason why a candidate should
file several copies Of the same affi-
dayit. and yet If papers may be filed
on the installment plan he would be
obliged to do so. II must have been
intended that If one affidavit is filed
with all of them, they must all be filed
at once.
"A candidate who feels aggrived at
your action on this opinion may easily
secure redress by resorting to man
damus suit, whereby il you adopt the
instalment plan, and IL should be er-
roneous, there would be no immediate
means Of redress"
The second question asked by the
county clerk was as to whether in eX-
amining nomination papers he should /
disregard the names Of persons who
have not at the time of registering de-
clared their party affiliations to be the
same as those of the candidate they
aspire TO place in office
you state that in some Republican
petitions" replied Shaw, (which you
have been checking, you find sigma
lures of persons who have registered
as Democrats, or refuse to state their
party affiliations. l beg to advise you
that in my opinion these should be
rejected.
"The primary election is in the ma
ture of things partisan. 1t is pro-
Vided for the purpose of enabling
the members of respective parties TO
select candidate of those parties for
the offices to be filed at the gen
eral election. 1t would be contrary
to the theory of such primary election |
to allow persons not members Of a |
party to participate in any way in
choosing candidates Of that party !
whether by voting at the election or
by securing names on the primary
election ballot"
Attorney Shaw quoted a recent de- !
cision of the supreme court of the |
state deciding similarly on the pro-
visions of the question asked by the |
county clerk.