Court Opinion

ID: 9674529
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:30:16.416899+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:27.976790
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, concurring. The dissent by Justice Glaze is a little rough even by my standards. However, I do understand the intensity of his sentiment in the matter because he was the chief architect of the election code of 1969. The 1969 election code was an idea whose time had come and the reform legislation replaced a myriad of archaic and overlapping election laws. Justice Glaze believes that this legislation governs all election contests. I too thought the legislature intended to establish a uniform twenty day election contest law. However, in 1985 this court voted 6-0 (I did not participate) in Wurst v. Lowery, 286 Ark. 474, 695 S.W.2d 378 (1985), that local option election contests must be filed within ten days from certification of the election results. The Wurst opinion, which was written by Justice George Rose Smith, dealt exclusively with the procedure to contest a local option election, which is the issue in the present case. The opinion stated: The attempt to intervene is far too late. Wurst could have intervened the day after the election had he been diligent. It is in the public interest that election results become final without delay. We hold that, by analogy, Wurst’s time for intervening in the case expired with the lapse of the time allowed for filing a contest of a local option election, which is ten days after the certification of the vote. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 48-820 (Repl. 1977). The opinion is clear and unambiguous. It is binding precedent and we have a choice of following it or overruling it. We do not have the option of ignoring it completely as has been done on the petition for rehearing. I have no bias in favor of or against either side in this dispute. The Wurst decision is over two years old and has heretofore received little, if any, criticism from the legislature or the legal community. In accordance with stare decisis, I feel compelled to follow our latest decision on this issue, Wurst. Perhaps the General Assembly will now clarify the issue in a manner which will leave no room for disagreement in future local option election contests.