Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1929-06-08

cations, into which a community is
divided, held primary elections, it
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.
I'm other words, the primary when
adopted by 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 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
e'ections-elections which shall faith
fully reflect and register the I'M
bought will of the electors.
IF there be fraud in the primary
election, which is the very root from
which the whole system of regulation
springs, il is vain to regulate the
conduct of general elections, for the
fraud by which the nominee at the
primary election is chosen enters into
and is an ineradicable constituent in
the result However fair the general
election may be, if at that election
men have no choice but to vote for
candidates who have been nominated
by fraudulent practices at primaries.
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 fraud and the defeat of
the will of the people, for of thorns
men do not gather figs, nor of BRAN
Die bush gather they grapes
we are of opinion that section
l22-o 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
have such a relation to and bearing
upon general elections, that the omis-
sion to bring them within the law
would have left the plan devised by
the legislature for securing the regu-
larity and purity of elections wholly
abortive and Intellectual"
What the Supreme Court Said
In Nixon V. Herndon, supra, the
Supreme Court said that "the same
reasons that allow recovery for de-
nying the plaintiff a vote at a final
election allow it for denying a vote
at the primary election that may de-
termine the final result" and in con-
STRUNG statute of Texas providing
that 'in no event shall a Negro be
eligible to participate in a Demo
cratic Party primary held in the
State of Texas, etc." declared the
statute an infringement of the Four
teenth Amendment.
Dodging the Issue |
The statute Of Virginia, unlike tina!
of Texas, does not in terms exclude
the Negro, but gives to the party
participating the right to do so. The
result is the same. The legislature
pursuant to constitutional authority.
having undertaken to regulate pri-
mary elections and to authorize them
to be held at the public expense and
to provide the same rules and regu-
lations applicable to an election, may
not indirectly any more than it may
directly exclude duly qualified voter
who declares himself to be an ad-
herent to the party participating in
the primary from the exercise of his
right of suffrage.
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment COM
pels the adoption of what is called
suffrage. Its purpose was
to establish all over the United States
one people and that each of these
may understand the constitutions
fact that his privileges and immu-
mites cannot be abridged by State
and that these rights are
not confined to any class or race but
all within its scope. The
General Assembly of Virginia hay
ing provided the primary as a meth
cd Though optionaD for the nomi-
nation of candidates ard the Supreme
Court of Virginia having declared it
when adopted an inseparable part of
the election machinery. it would seem
to me necessarily to follow that the
legislature cannot BY delegation or
otherwise give vitality to claimed
right which it is itself prohibited by
The Constitution from enactirg into
aw.
Other Citations
In People ex rel, Brechton v. Elec- +;
ion Commissioners, 221 III. 9, q n. Z.
E. 321, it was held that a primary
,lection law which provides that the
county committees Of political party
snail determine whethc~ candidates
shall he nominated by majority or a
plurality vote, is invalid as dele
alton of legislative power, me
2asis of this decision being that since
the legislature had enacted statute
regulating the form OF the ballot
what shall appear upon it. and how
he candidates whose names appeaT
shall be chosen, it has drawn to It'll
self the duty of determining the ques-
ton whether majority or plurality
vote should be necessary to nominate
and that the delegation of this right
to a political party might not be le-
pally done. and this is no more than
the RECOGNITION of the well established
that a law must be complete
in all its terms and conditions when
it leaves the legislature. Cooley's
Const. Linn. 9th Ed 1853. 1
Delegation of Power
t. tho statute under consideration