Court Opinion

ID: 9772789
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:30:05.086612+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:48.510833
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Griffin
joined by Justice Smith, dissenting
I respectfully dissent.
It is uncontroverted and uncontradicted that at the time Relator filed his application for his name to be placed on the ballot of the Republican Party as a candidate for Congressman, *532he made the statement that he was “A Democrat who thinks he can be nominated on the opposite ticket.” I cannot subscribe to the doctrine that one who states he is a Democrat at the time he files his application to have his name placed on the ballot of any other party is entitled to a place on that ballot.
I do agree that neither the county chairman, nor the executive committee nor any other party committee has the right to deprive a person of a place on the ballot when such person files an application on the forms furnished by the party and unqualifiedly submits himself for affiliation with the party. But in this case it is an undisputed fact that the person seeking a place on the ballot of another party says he is a member of a different party, and I cannot agree that he is entitled to have a writ of mandamus requiring that his name be placed on the ballot of such party of which he states he is not a member.
Further, both sides, in oral argument, agreed that the rights of Relator were fixed as of May 5, 1958, the date on which he filed his application, and that anything he might have done since that time could not add to or take away from these rights.
Opinion delivered June 11, 1958.