The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-04-17
MADISON IS DRY
So Says the City Attorney and
the City Commission in
Formal Session

FORMAL OeSSlOn
The city commission met by appoint
ment at the council chamber at 1880
last evening to canvas the vote on the
liquor question, at the election held
Tuesday, April is.
According to the pollbooks, 500 voters
were registered as having voted. OF
these 412 were Eyes" in favor of the
open saloon, and 400 mo-" opposed
to the open saloon total of S21 votes
counted by the judges and clerks and
registered as properly executed and
cast. Five ballots were thrown out by
the judges as defective. 1t was brought
to the attention of the commission
that there had been court decision to
the effect that the "wets' in order
to carry an election must have a ma
jority of all the votes cast, in which
they failed by two votes, counting the
five defective votes as a necessary fac
tor in the election. Accordingly, the
commission called for a written opin-
ion from City Attorney Holdridge,
and adjourned until $50 o'clock this
morning to enable that official to pre-
pare the document.
Much interest was manifested in
the action Of the attorney and the
commission, and early this morning
the vicinity of the city hall was
thronged with people anxious to hear
the first news after the officials had
taken action.
At $50 the commission met and re-
csived the opinion of the city attorney,
as follows:
Madison, s. D., April 16, 1913
Honorable Mayor and City Commission
ers: Replying to your question as to
whether the question "Shall intoxi-
eating liquors be sold at retail'' was
carried in the affirmative or the mega
tive, upon the face of the returns as
canvassed by you last evening, | beg
to state:
MY opinion is that the Yes" lost,
for the reason that they did not re-
ceive a majority of the votes cast at
said election. There is a we'll estab.
lished rumor that the law passed by
the last Legislature upon this question
was improperly passed, and that the
attorney general has given ii rs his
opinion that the law is not in force.
From the view | take of the question,
it is immaterial whether this law is
OF is not in force, because, there being
no other question submitted at this
election. and no larger vote being
cast upon any proposition at this
election as a basis upon which TO es-
tablish the number of votes cast, the
only question is, as to whether a ma.
jority Of the votes cast upon this ques-
tion were in favor of the sale of in
toxicating liquors or not.
There were S26 votes registered by
the election board, as being cast at
this election. There were 500 votes ac-
counted for by the official returns.
One-half of this number is Ala, and
of curse in order TO receive a major.
ity it would necessitate a vote of at
least Ala in favor of the sale. There
were only 4t2 cast in favor of intoxicat-
ing liquors, which would be 2 less
than enough.
AS / understand, there were three
ballots rejected because they were i'm
properly marked. and Q blank. The
question has been raised that Blanks
should not be counted as ballots. / dc
not think this is a sound conclusion,
and think that such blanks should be
counted in the number of votes cast,
and as effecting the number necessary to
make a majority; but il we leave out
the blanks entirely, there were still
S24 votes cast, counting the 3 i'm
properly marked ballots which were
rejected by the judges. This would
leave 413 necessary to constitute q
majority. which g that the
"wets'' would in any event be one
| vote short.
Our supreme court in the case of
| treat VS.. Morris, 1919 N. w. 554, a
case going up from Red6eld upon this
very question in 1910 says upon this
proposition:
"Ballots not counted by reason of
defective marking will not reduce the
majority required to authorize the
sale. Where it is shown that some.
one voted who is not a legal voter,
that would reduce the majority to be
overcome, but where a qualified cleo
tor has lost his vote, by reason of
the improper marking of his ballot,
no such result will follow, but the
majority required would remain the
same
Therefore my opinion is that the
question was lost at the recent election
upon the face of the returns. Respect
| fully.