Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1929-06-29

an official act or a personal act, that
is to say, was in the performance OF
a duty cnjoined on them by statute
o. vas merely Individual and per
soma. end 1uS4oriz / by right III
:. Grant in tia political organ za.ion t.
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
and that the Legislature
as such has no authority to fix stand
ards or qualifications of Membership
Grigsby ". Harris, 27 F (2d) ga
They say in effect that there is NJ
legal ban on the formation of a p>'
litical party based wholly on color @:
on religious belief or on sex or any
other standard which the parry
chooses to adopt, and that because OF
this, the General Assembly of Viz
ginia in recognizing the right mao
no delegation of power but only rec
ognized the existence of the p)weT
where it has always resided.
The Way Out
There can be no doubt, at least Sd
far as the State of Virginia is c@1-
,..sc4 TIA: . political party may
~ef-se To avail itself of the priv'
legas of the direct primary and ny
u.niYa-e candidates to be vote tJr
n q general or special election in a@y
OF the WAYS in which such nomlna-
tons were made before the introduc-
SION of the primary. Candidates f-r
-uJ,.c cT;ce may be made such by
Hr+;tior. bv action of a caucus, or "
: c,y~ontion. Indeed they may be
nominated in primary conducted by
The party under its own rules and g.:
Is own EXPENSE. But if because. OF
ne greater safeguards which the laE
t.rows around a legalized primary'
or because in such case the eXpen 2
5 borne by the State, party eLec.5
% adopt this method Of naming is
candidates for PUBLIC Office, it may
81 50 and still preserve the absolute
r,gat 20 determine who shall partiCi-
rate. is a much more deIcate cues
ton.
A Modern Proposition
The primary as means Of namlr g
candidates for a place on the oiiclal
ballot is comparatively modern. It's
spread in the last quarter of cen
fury has been steady and it is today
in practically every State the excIu-
sive method adopted by the two great
political parties for the nomination
of candidates for Office, State and
Federal. It's growth and adoption
as vital part of the election system
arose because of the Importance to
the public to "give vitality to the
constitutional guaranty Of free and
untrammeied ballot"
Judge Keith's Language
This purpose may not be better
stated than repeating the language
of Judge Keith in Commonwealth v
Wilcox, III Va, page $50, as fol-
lows:
1--WE know, as a matter of common
knowledge, that the purpose o. h).d-
ing a primary election is to select .
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 TO
which ne belongs and for which the
primary is held, and if both political
organizations, or all political organl-
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 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 fuLtlIs
an essential function in the plan to
promote honesty in the conduct of
INSTRUMENTATION which shall faith
fully reflect and register the I'M
bought will of the electors.
eff there be fraud in the primary
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 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
oy fraudulent practices at primaries,
Dr. 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 If BRAN
bic bush gather they grapes
"We 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
have such 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