Court Opinion

ID: 9666197
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:07:37.368363+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:22.288654
License: Public Domain

TOM Glaze, Justice, dissenting. This court has no record (or the necessary parties) upon which it can decide this case, nor did the parties pursue the correct proceeding to obtain the relief they sought in this case. Contrary to case law, it has simply reached out to offer a declaratory decision even though the parties failed to join the proper parties or to preserve the legal issues they want decided. On September 1, 1999, county officials Allred, Ham, and Bunch filed a petition for declaratory judgment and mandamus requesting the circuit court to compel the respondent Madison County Election Commission to place the petitioners’ names on the general-election ballot in the year 2000. As a part of the relief sought by petitioners, they asked the circuit court to declare unconstitutional a county initiative measure — passed by Madison County voters on November 3, 1998. That measure provided that county officials are ineligible to have their names placed on the 2000 general election ballot if their service in office had already exceeded the limited terms of office required under the new county measure passed in 1998. . On March 23, 2000, the circuit court ruled in favor of the respondent, Madison County Election Commission, and declared the 1998 county measure lawful and valid; however, it did not order the petitioners’ names removed from the ballots in the 2000 general election. Nor did the court make any reference to the 2000 party-primary ballots. Other than the petitioners’ notice of appeal filed on March 28, 2000, nothing appears in the record showing what happened in either the primary election or the November 7, 2000, election. In fact, the record merely reflects that the petitioners filed their appellate brief with this court on June 12, 2000, the respondent filed its brief on July 11, 2000, but no one offered to supplement the record or to request this election case on appeal be accelerated so a complete record could be presented and a proper decision could be made. It is mere conjecture as to what has occurred in this case since the trial court’s March 23, 2000, order, nonetheless, the majority has chosen to forge ahead to issue a declaration of law in this election case. I am unaware of any appeal decided by this court where this court knew so little about what had transpired in a case (much less an election case), but the court still opts to decide the appeal. As this court held in State v. Craighead County Bd. of Election Comm’rs, 300 Ark. 405, 779 S.W.2d 169 (1989), an action for mandamus and declaratory relief is the proper method of enforcing the right set out in Ark. Code Ann. § 7-5-207(b), which prohibits the inclusion of an ineligible candidate on an election ballot. See also Standridge v. Priest, 334 Ark. 568, 976 S.W.2d 388 (1998) (citing the Craighead County case as establishing the proper legal proceeding to file to determine the eligibility of a candidate and to decide whether his or her name should be placed on or removed from a ballot). In the present case, the circuit court issued no mandamus removing the petitioners’ names from the election ballot, primary or general; once again, this court has no information showing if petitioners’ names appeared on those ballots. In the Craighead County case, the court further held that, when a mandamus action is brought in an election case to determine a candidate’s eligibility and right to have his or her name on the ballot, courts must see that all necessary parties are joined under Ark. R. Civ. P. 19. As already noted above, no primary election officials, such as the Madison County Democratic or Republican Committee, were made parties, nor were those officials who are statutorily authorized to certify the names of party nominees or general election candidates made parties to this litigation. See Ark. Code Ann. § 7-7-203 (b)(2). The Arkansas Election Code requires that all political party nominees in special or general elections be selected first at a primary election and then be certified. Lewis v. State, 318 Ark. 334, 885 S.W.2d 663 (1994). Because the provisions of elections are only mandatory if enforcement is sought before the election, the necessary parties, including the respondent Madison County Election Commission, should have sought their relief before the 2000 primary and general elections. Although the petitioners initially filed a proper complaint, the parties simply abandoned that procedure as prescribed in our Craighead County case and its progeny. The record fails to show that the respondent ever requested the court to order the petitioners’ names be omitted from the primary or general election ballots, and it is clearly too late to request a decision to that effect now. This court’s decision to give an advisory opinion on petitioners’ eligibility and right to have their names placed on the 2000 primary and election ballots not only is moot at this time, but also the parties failed to pursue the proper proceeding to obtain the relief sought. The majority court’s decision to proceed in this matter is clearly inconsistent with Arkansas’s established law on the subject. This court’s decision to go forward in this important election case without a complete record will only serve to introduce confusion in ballot name-eligibility cases in the future.1  Smith, J., joins.   While it is unclear from the record before this court, the petitioners’ names, I assume, were left on the required ballots; likely, they were elected. Nevertheless, the proper legal proceeding to challenge the officials’ eligibility to take and hold the office for which she or he ran appears to be one of usurpation of office. See Looper v. Thrush, 334 Ark. 212, 972 S.W.2d 250 (1998).