Iverson v. Jones

• Decision Date: 11 November 1936
• Docket Number: 7.
• Citation: Iverson v. Jones, 171 Md. 649, 187 A. 863 (Md. 1936)
• Parties: IVERSON v. JONES, SECRETARY OF STATE.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

187 A. 863

171 Md. 649

IVERSON v. JONES, SECRETARY OF STATE.

No. 7.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

November 11, 1936

Appeal from Baltimore City Court; Eugene O'Dunne, Judge.

Mandamus proceeding by George D. Iverson, Jr., to require E. Ray Jones, Secretary of State, to certify nominees for general election.From an order dismissing the petition, petitioner appeals.

Appeal dismissed.

Argued before BOND, C.J., and URNER, OFFUTT, PARKE, SLOAN, MITCHELLSHEHAN, and JOHNSON, JJ.

Henry Zoller, Jr., of Baltimore, for appellant.

Charles T. Le Viness, 3d, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Herbert R. O'Conor Atty. Gen., on the brief), for appellee.

BOND Chief Judge.

The appeal is from the sustaining of a demurrer, and dismissal of the appellant's petition for the writ of mandamus to require the Secretary of State to certify, under the Code art. 33, §§ 49 to 52, names of nominees for office to be voted for at the election to be held on November 3, 1936.After argument was heard, the court came to the conclusion that the order must be affirmed, and so ordered on October 16, 1936, deferring the filing of a reasoned opinion.This order will be amended by dismissal of the appeal.The reasons are now stated.

The petition, as amended, alleged that the persons specified as nominees were nominated for the offices respectively of President, Vice President, presidential electors, and Congressmen from the several districts in Maryland, by a Union Political Party which had been duly incorporated under the laws of the state on August 24, 1936.This new party, it was alleged, held a convention of delegates representing all the legislative districts in the state on September 30, 1936, and in due form the convention made the nominations specified, and certified them to the Secretary of State charged with giving the nominations effect, under and in accordance with sections 50and56 of article 33, but that the Secretary of State refused to receive the certificate.The petition for the writ of mandamus followed.

The election laws of the state, article 33, provide three methods of nomination by parties other than those which polled 10 per cent. of the entire vote cast in the state at a preceding general election, for which the regular primary election is prescribed.Section 190.Primary elections are open to voters representing a particular party or principle whose highest candidate at any election within two years next preceding polled more than one per cent. and less than 10 per cent. of the entire vote cast in the state, county or other division or district for which the nomination is made.Section 49.The Union Political Party, being new, could not come within that class, and, moreover, the time for holding a primary election had passed when the party was organized.Second, a convention may be held by an organization of voters coming within the description just given, section 49, and, of course, this new party could not, for the same reason, avail itself of that method.Third, under section 51, nominations could be made by certificates of nomination, signed by voters in specified numbers according to the extent of territory in which the vote for each office is taken, accompanied by affidavits to the qualifications of the signers, and filed with the designated state official.This method would have been available to the members of the new party, and it would have been the only method provided for them by the law.As it was not followed, the nominations could not be acted on by the Secretary of State under any authority vested in him.

The petitioner argues that by the denial to the party members of the right to vote for their candidates, pursuant to the proceedings which were adopted, he and the other members have been denied rights secured to them under the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States that no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United...