Case Name: State of Florida, ex rel. Sidney J. Catts, Relator, v. H. Clay Crawford, Thomas F. West and J. C. Luning, Secretary of State, Attorney General and State Treasurer, Respectively, Constituting the State Canvassing Board for Democratic Primary of June 6th, 1916, Respondents
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1916-10-06
Citations: 72 Fla. 253
Docket Number: 
Parties: State of Florida, ex rel. Sidney J. Catts, Relator, v. H. Clay Crawford, Thomas F. West and J. C. Luning, Secretary of State, Attorney General and State Treasurer, Respectively, Constituting the State Canvassing Board for Democratic Primary of June 6th, 1916, Respondents.
Judges: 
Reporter: Florida Reports
Volume: 72
Pages: 253–254

Head Matter:
State of Florida, ex rel. Sidney J. Catts, Relator, v. H. Clay Crawford, Thomas F. West and J. C. Luning, Secretary of State, Attorney General and State Treasurer, Respectively, Constituting the State Canvassing Board for Democratic Primary of June 6th, 1916, Respondents.
Opinion Filed Oct. 6, 1916.
The State Canvassing Board will not by mandamus be required to reconvene and to canvass inaccurate returns of a primary election that may have been superseded by amended and corrected returns made in judicial proceedings the accuracy of which latter is not questioned.
Original Petition for Mandamus.
Alternative Writ denied.
W. W. Flournoy, for Relator;
No appearance for Respondents.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
—The Prayer of the petition is that the State Canvassing Board be compelled to add the sixty-nine votes from Precinct Number 3 in Alachua County to the canvass made on September 21st, and from this to declare as a result that the relator is the nominee of the Democratic party for the office of Governor.
The canvass referred to was made under the order of this Court based upon amended and corrected returns then before said Board. The writ here prayed confines that Board to the returns before it on said date and takes from its consideration any amended or corrected returns since filed. In other words, it seeks to have the State Canvassing Board declare not the true result of the primary election, as shown by the returns before it, but a result arrived at by a tabulation based upon inaccurate returns, that may have been superseded by recounts, the accuracy of which is not questioned by the relator.
By confining the State Canvassing Board to an antecedent date, the pleader has industriously excluded from its consideration any account of subsequent corrections of the various county returns, however meritorious and unimpeachable.
The alternative writ is denied.