Court Opinion

ID: 9758691
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:40:27.564151+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:53.980910
License: Public Domain

O’Sullivan, J.
(dissenting). I am in accord with the answer to the first question but disagree with that to the second. I interpret the charter section to mean that two registrars of voters shall be elected from the major political parties which at the previous election polled the highest and next to the highest vote for the office of registrar of voters. The result of this interpretation is that Mills and Gaynor are entitled to the offices in question.
The majority opinion leaves unanswered one vital question. How shall it be determined which of the major political parties polled the highest and second highest vote? For example, assume that an Independent party had elected in 1949 the only candidate it nominated, namely, John Smith for mayor. Is it entitled to a registrar of voters in 1951? Or assume that the party nominates a full slate and that Smith comes in a poor third, while his running mates for other city offices just nose out their Republican and Democratic *641opponents. Which party polled the highest number of votes?
It has been suggested that the proper test is to average the votes. The following illustration will demonstrate the weakness of that method. Assume that the nominees of the Independent party for all the major offices are defeated by a slender margin in each instance, but that its nominees for the offices of constable swamp their opponents so badly that the average for all is thereby made greater than that of the other parties. Does this result permit the Independent party to claim the office of registrar of voters at the succeeding election? The legislature could not have so intended. The interpretation I place on the language of the charter is reasonable and will escape the difficulties which the majority opinion makes possible. And, in the instant case, it will avoid the anomalous result of denying a registrar of voters to the Democratic party, the caucus list of which shows that 10,400 persons are affiliated with it, as well as of denying two years hence a registrar of voters to the Republican party, with its 7032 members, while giving the office to the candidate for the Socialist party, on whose caucus list there are but 76 names.