Carson City daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1907-1930, 1912-07-19

ELECTORS
CONTINUED from Page u

more the punctuation which would
make the law absurd, or will con
slider that the Legislature intend
ed to p%unctuate the law so as to
give it effect in the way they in
tended it. See Howe v. Coldren,
4 New, III.
The contention of our Oppon-
ents is that the amendatOry Act
exempts from the operation of the
Primary Law Especial elections
to fill vacancies to the nomination
Of party candidates for Presiden-
tial Electors" On the other
hand, our contention is that the
comma should be read in after the
word vacancies" so that the Act
would exempt Especial elections
to fill vacancies" which would
mean all vacancies in office caus-
ed by death, resignation, removal,
etc, and also exempt ''nomina-
tons of party candidates for
Presidential Electors" SO that it
would not be legal to nominate
such candidates in the Primary
Election, but by Convention.
In the first place, there is no
such thing in opr political system
as elections to fill vacancies to
nominations; in fact, the Primary
Law itself, in Section q, provides
as follows:
"Sec. q. Vacancies occurring
after the holding of any primary
election shall be filled by the par.
ty committee Of the city, county,
city and county, district or state,
a. the case may be-"
Vacancies under the general
election law, approved March Ii,
1891, are also provided for in Sec
ton Z Of said Act (Sec 1889 Rev.
Laws, the same to be flied by the
convention or by a committee to
which such power has been dele
gated by the convention.
It will thus be seen that there
is no such thing as a special cleo
ton to fill a vacancy in a nOmi-
nation and the construction plac.
ed: upon the Act by our friends
is therefore absurd and would
make it meaningless, whereas our
construction is easily applicable
to the terms of the Act.
There is no doubt but that the
omission of the comma in the am
endatory Act was a clerical err
ror made by one of the enrolling
clerks. / have examined the or
iginal enrolled bill and find that
the word vacancies appears at
the extreme end of the first line
Of the paragraph and this fact
very naturally was the cause for
the omission of the comma.
If the Legislature had intended
the Act to NEAR what M OppOn-
ents contend, they would certain
ly have changed the word ''to'
after the word "vacancies' to the
word "in' so that it would read
vacancies in the nomination of
party candidates for Presidential
Electors" as the words "vacan-
cies to nomination are certainly
not well chosen.
The fact that there is no such a
thing as a special election or any
election to fill vacancies to or in
nominations, and that the Pri-
mary Act itself provides that such
vacancies shall be filled by the
committees precludes the posi-
bility of any such construction as
is contended for by our opponents
The Secretary of State has sent
out a notice to all the County
Clerks calling for the nomination
Of candidates for Presidential Ell
ectors in the coming Primary FL
ectiOn, and as we contend this is
q wrong Interpretation of the law
and as it is such an important
matter to all parties, | trust you
will give us an early opinion in
the matter. IF u contention is
wrong, it will be necessary for the
Democratic Party to nominate
candidates in the coming Pri
mary, while if our contention 40
right. it will not be possible for
any party to so nominate their
candidates for Presidential Elec-
tors, but all parties except the
Democratic will have to provide
other means for the nomination of
such candidates.
Respectfully yours,
JAMES d. FINCH, :
Acting Secretary Democratic