Court Opinion

ID: 9669782
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:09:24.809933+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:00.253784
License: Public Domain

HAMITER, Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I am satisfied that fraud, sufficient to nullify the result of the election as promulgated by the Democratic Committee, was perpetrated in the casting of the contested seventeen votes in Precinct 3 of Ward 2. To me it is inconceivable that these votes could have been cast without the knowledge and assistance of at least three of the attending commissioners (this number is required at all times for the proper operation of the polling place).
But merely because the commissioners wore badges bearing the name of Mr. O’Hara, and they were considered to be members of his political faction, it does not necessarily follow that such candidate received the illegal votes. The persons guilty of the wrongful manipulation of the voting machine, thereby depriving the voters of the free expression of their will, also would not have hesitated to commit — and might well have performed — a Judas Iscariot act: they, for suitable remuneration, turning against the person whom they apparently favored in the first instance.
Therefore, I am of the opinion that, rather than declaring Mr. Dowling- to be the Democratic nominee, there should be judgment ordering the calling and holding of another second primary election.