Court Opinion

ID: 9528325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:39:47.056307+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:25:43.956496
License: Public Domain

Otis, Justice
(dissenting).
I cannot agree that a ballot which is characterized by the majority as “clearly invalid” should determine the outcome of an election (as it quite obviously does in this case), where the *360invalidity is the result of the voter herself flagrantly violating the law.
To permit this decisive ballot to be counted condones an abuse which undermines a fundamental safeguard in the election process. It opens the door to the distinct possibility that the ballot will be used by someone other than the person for whom it was intended. Here, the blank absentee ballot was handed to the applicant’s husband. There was no evidence whatever that his wife actually cast the vote.
In1 my opinion, to require that the challenge be made before the absentee ballot is counted leads to a completely unrealistic process which would impose an intolerable burden on candidates running for statewide office. It would make it mandatory that in all of nearly 4,000 precincts poll watchers be designated to examine absentee ballots before they are opened. I cannot believe that this was the intention of the legislature in prescribing procedures for absentee voting.
I recognize that by excluding this invalid ballot the person to whom it was issued would be required to divulge the manner in which she cast her vote, if indeed she did vote. Nevertheless, she has forfeited her right to secrecy by willfully violating the law. If the question as to how she voted remains in doubt, competent evidence of her preelection position with respect to the candidates would, in all likelihood, be available to the parties.
Whatever may be the difficulties inherent in rejecting the ballot, the alternatives are no better. The effect of the majority decision is to permit the outcome of an election to be determined by a patently unlawful process, since there is no serious question but that the illegal vote was cast for the winning candidate.
This was a hotly contested and bitterly conducted election affecting matters of fundamental municipal policy on which the community was deeply divided. Notwithstanding the fact that the rejection of the illegal ballot would result in a tie vote and that the election would then be decided by the toss of a coin, such procedure would at least give effect to the election laws, main*361tain the integrity of the ballot, and allow the controversy to be resolved in a democratic manner.