Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1921-04-21
Mr.. Martin o. Luther,
City Clerk,
Payette, Idaho.

City Clerk,
Payette, Idaho.
Dear Sir:
In reply to your communication
of the 18th inst, calling my atten.
ton to a letter received by you from
the Attorney Generals office rela-
tive to the insufficiency of the GER
tificate of nomination filed by the
Progressive Peoples Ticket and
asking for my opinion as to your au,
thority to place the names of candk
dates, shown in said certificate, Oh
the ballot, beg leave to state as fol
! lows:
FIRST: Sections one, two and
three of Senate Bill No. $50 passed
at the last session of our State Leg
| islature and which governs nomina-
tions made by convention for can
didates for municipal offices to be
voted for at the comm election read
respectfully as follows:
Section /. Candidates for cleo
tive municipal offices in cities of the
first and second classes and villages,
may be nominated either by conven,
tion or petition.
Section 2. A convention within
the meaning of this act is an organ
lied assemblage of qualified votes
of municipalities mentioned in Sec
ton l of this act holding an elec.
tion under this act, representing a
party or principal. The number of
qualified electors required to hold
a convention under this act in viii
lagos shall be not less than ten, and
in cities of the first and second
classes, shall not be less than forty.
Such convention may be called and
assembled in any manner desired,
but nominations shall be made by
majority vote of the qualified cleo
tors participating therein.
Section 8. All nominations
made by conventions shall be certi>
fled as follows: the certificate of
nomination, and there shall be but
one certificate for each convention
held, shall be in writing; shall con,
tain the name of each person nomi-
mated; his residence; his business;
the office for which he is nominal
ed; shall designate in MT more than
three words the party or principle,
but not both, which such convention
meeting represents; it shall be sign>
ed by the presiding officer and sec
retary of such convention, who shall
also certify that they were in at
tendance at the convention which
made the nominatios to which their
signatures are appended and that
no less than the number of qualified
electors as required Section 2 OF
this act, participated therein.
SECOND; You will notice from
an examination of the above sections
that this law was drawn to apply not
only to cities of the first and second
classes but also to villages
You will notice from a mere casu-
al inspection of the law and certifi>
cate that the said certificate does
not comply with the strict require
ments as laid down therein relative
to a certificate of nomination, and
especially in that it does not state
| that there were not less than forty
therein. 1t is my opinion that if the
law relative. to what nomination
certificate shall contain is manda
tory then the instrument filed pur-
porting to be a nomination certifi-
cate would he worthless and that you
have ne authority to place the
names of the candidates therein
named upon the official ballot. But
as stated before this law was drawn
to apply to villages as well as to
cities and we all know that many of
the villages in the State of Idaho
have no attorneys living therein and
probably the certificate of nomina.
/ tion would be drawn by laymen not
| VerSed IN the Drawn or such lnStru.
ments as seems to have been the
case in the drawing of the certificate
by the Progressive Peoples Ticket.
OF course it seems to me very
strange that in city the size of
Payette with the number of attor.
neys living here and in matter of
as great Importance as this that the
chairman of the convention would
not have submitted the proposition
of drawing the certificate of nomina>
ton to an attorney and had the cer>
tificate drawn in such manner that
it would at least have substantially
met the requirements of the statute
However the fact still seems to re>