Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1929-07-06

States and not against private per
sons.
The Point az issue
The point, therefore, on which this
case turns is whether the act of the
election otficers-the defendants-Was
an official act or a personal act, that
is to say, was in the performance of
duty enjoined on them by statute
or was merely individual and per-
sonal and authorized by right IN
herent in the political organization to
which they belong. Defendants say
that the latter is the correct view
That utilization with a political party
is not a matter of right but of party
regulation and that the Legislature
as such has no authority to fix stand
ards or qualifications of membership
Grigsby V. Harris, q F cd 942
They say in effect that there is no
legal ban on the formation of q po-
litical party based wholly on color or
on religious belief or on sex or any
other standard which the party
chooses to adopt, and that because OF
his. he General Assembly Of Viz
ginia in recognizing the right made
no delegation Of power but only rec
oqnizad the existence of the power
where it has always resided.
The Way Out
There can be TO doubt, at east so
far as The State Of Virginia is con-
cerned, that a political party may
refuse to avail itself of the privi-
leges of the direct primary and may
nominate candidates to be voted for
in a general or special election in any
Of the ways in which such nom:na-
tons were made before the introdUc-
ton of the primary. Candidates for
public Office may be made such by
petition, by action of a caucus, or by
a convention. Indeed they may be
nominated in primary conducted by
Inc party under its own rules and at
Is own expense. But if because OF
the greater safeguards which the law
throws around a legalizei primary
or because in such case the expense
is borne by the State, a party elects
10 adopt this method of naming its
candidates for public office, it may
do so and still preserve the absolute
light 20 determine who shall partici-
, pate, is much more delicate cues.
! ton.
A Modern Proposition
The primary as 9 means II naming
candidates for q place on the official
ballot is comparatively modern. 1t:
sOread in the las. quarter of cen
tvry has been steady and it is today
in practically every State the exc u
s:ve method adopted by the two g-ea;
oa!itica. parties for the nomination
Of candidates for office, State and
Federal. It's growth and adopt on
as q vital part OF the election system
arose because of the Importance to
the public to "give vitality to the
constitutional guaranty of free and
untrammeled ballot"
/ Judge Keith's Language
This purpose may not be batter
stated than repeating the Language
Of Judge Keith in Commonwealth V
Wilcox, III Va, page $50, as fol
lows:
I'VE know, as q matter of common
knowledge, that the purpose of hold
ing a primary election is to select q
candidate to be voted for by a party
organization at the ensuing general
or special election. We know that
the person selected at the primary
election to be voted for at the general
or special election will receive the
votes of the members OF the party =
which he belongs and for which the
primary is held, and if both political
organizations, or all political organi-
cations, into which a community IS
divided. held primary elections, 1t
necessarily follows that the person
chosen at the primary becomes the
nominee of his party to be voted for
at the general election, and that one
Of the primary nominees will ulti-
mately be elected to the office.
'In other words, the primary when
adopted by a political party becomes
an inseparable part of the election
machinery, and if a candidate to be
voted for at the general election is to
be selected at a primary, it is impos.
sible to secure the regularity and
purity of the general election without
in the first place guarding against ir-
regularity and fraud at the primary
election. The primary election con-
stitutes a necessary part, and fulfils
an essential function in the plan to
promote honesty in the conduct OF
Decentralization which shall faith
fully reflect and register the IN
bought will of the electors.
n - l. ~. NrTp q =.
election, which is the very root from
which the whole system Of regulation
springs, it is vain to regulate the
conduct of general elections, for the
fraud by which the nonn;nee {. me
primary election is chosen enters into
and is an ineradicable constituent IN
the result. However fair he genera!
election may be, if at that election
men have no choice but TO vote for
candidates who have been nominated
by fraudulent practices at primo ries
or else to desert their party, which
would be in most instances but to
throw away their votes without
achieving any good result, the effect
of the election must be the consum-
nation of a fraud and the defeat of
the will of the people, for of thorns
men do not gather figs, nor of bram-
BILE bush gather they grapes
eve are of opinion that section
1920 is not only cognate and ger
name to, congruous with and in fur
therance of the object expressed in
the title of chapter 10 of the Code,
which fully satisfies the requirements
of the Constitution, without resort to
any liberality of construction, but
that primary elections in their nature
hnua snnh q relation To and hearing