Ledgerwood v. Pitts

• Decision Date: 26 February 1910
• Parties: LEDGERWOOD et al. v. PITTS et al.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

125 S.W. 1036

122 Tenn. 570

LEDGERWOOD et al. v. PITTS et al.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

February 26, 1910

Appeal from Chancery Court, Davidson County; John Allison Chancellor.

Bill by W. L. Ledgerwood and others against John A. Pitts and others to restrain defendants, as primary election commissioners from acting under Compulsory Primary Election Law 1909, c 102. From an order overruling defendants' demurrer to the bill, they appeal. Affirmed.

Charles T. Cates, Jr., Pitts & McConnico, and Tillman & McCall, for appellants.

James C. Bradford, Vertrees & Vertrees, and D. B. Puryear, for appellees.

McALISTER J.

The fundamental question presented on this record is in respect of the constitutionality of chapter 102 of the Acts of 1909 popularly known as the "Primary Election Law." The bill was exhibited by complainants, as citizens and taxpayers of the state, against the members of the state Democratic and Republican boards of primary election commissioners, for the purpose of enjoining defendant commissioners from exercising their functions and having their salaries and expenses incurred by them in the execution of the act paid out of the funds of the state, on the ground that the act creating said boards is unconstitutional and void; and in the alternative, assuming said act to be valid, it is charged that commissioners were illegally elected or appointed. The complainants prayed for writs of injunction restraining the defendants from executing, or attempting to execute, said act, and for a decree declaring said act void and the election of defendants unlawful. The defendant commissioners demurred to the bill, assigning 15 specifications, all of which were overruled by the chancellor, the act adjudged unconstitutional, and an injunction granted restraining the commissioners from incurring any expense in the exercise of the powers or in the performance of the duties conferred upon them by said act. The defendants appealed, and have assigned the action of the chancellor for error.

The act in question is entitled "An act to establish a compulsory system of legalized primary law for political nominations, to create the agencies for its operation and penalize its violation." It is conceded that the act in its particular operation applies only to two of the political parties in the state--the Democratic and Republican--though by its terms it embraces all political parties which cast more than 10 per cent. of the entire vote of the state at the general November election next preceding the primary therein directed to be held.

"Section 1. That excepting the offices of judges of the Supreme Court of the state and judges of the Court of Civil Appeals, chancellors, criminal and circuit judges and Attorneys General, all party nominations of candidates hereafter in this state made for offices county, state, and congressional elective by the electors of the state, or for offices created by the Constitution of the state, elective by the General Assembly in joint session, shall be made in and by a primary election held for each political party, in the manner, at the times, and under the requirements prescribed by this act; and unless this act is complied with party nominations falling within the terms of the same shall not be placed upon the official ballots provided for by the laws of the state for general elections, provided, however, that this act shall not apply to non-partisan candidates or to persons desiring to become candidates independent of party nominations; nor to persons of any other party affiliation which did not, at the general November election next preceding the primary, cast more than ten (10) per cent. of the entire vote in the state; and, provided, also, that this act, as to nominations for county officers other than legislative members, county executive committeemen, and delegates to state conventions, shall not apply, when a county executive committee of the party it represents not less than forty days prior to the first Monday of April designated by this act, as the date of the first and recurring biennial primary elections, shall have provided for nominations for such county officers by some other legal method than that prescribed by this act; but this proviso shall not relieve the county executive committees from the performance of such duties as may be otherwise prescribed by this act.

"Sec. 2. That the representative civil district and ward committeemen of the political parties of the state falling within this act, who shall compose, as hereinafter prescribed, the county executive committee of a party and delegates of political parties to the state convention, hereinafter provided for, shall be elected in and by the said primary elections.

"Sec. 3. That commencing on the first Saturday in April, 1910, and biennially thereafter on said day, there shall be held a primary election for nominations for party candidates, ward and civil district committeemen of the county, and delegates to the state convention herein provided for; but in case a second primary should become necessary under the subsequent provisions of this act, the same shall be held on the fourth Saturday following the date of the original or first primary heretobefore directed."

Section 4 provides that party nominations in the primaries are to be determined by a majority of the popular vote cast in said election; and if any candidate receive less than a majority, a second or "run-off" primary must be held, at which the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes cast in the first election shall contest for the nomination.

"Sec. 9. That the central or state executive committee shall call a state convention of the political party it represents, the time of holding the convention to be within a period not earlier than the twentieth nor later than the thirtieth day following the date prescribed by this act for holding the second or run-off primary, which convention shall be composed of the delegates elected in the primary hereinbefore provided.

"Said state convention shall select party presidential electors, party delegates to the national convention; formulate a party platform, if it chooses; select central or state executive committeemen in the manner and upon the basis hereinbefore prescribed; declare nominations certified to it as prescribed by this act; determine contests over party nominations; pass upon questions involving the rights of delegates to sit in the convention, and exercise such other powers as may be necessary to the execution of its functions and the enforcement of this act, but not so as to impair or violate the directions, restrictions or limitations of the same."

Section 17, subsec. 7, invests the election officers with all the powers, duties, and privileges of election officers acting under the general election laws of the state, and are subjected to the same penalties for any act or deed declared by the general laws of the state as an offense in the case of the officers of regular state elections.

Sections 20, 21, and 22 prescribe the qualifications of those who participate in the primaries.

Section 20 provides: "That no person shall be eligible to vote in the primaries provided for by this act, who shall not, at the time of the same, be qualified to vote in the next general election held under the laws of the state."

"Subsection 1. Each voter, before voting in the primary, shall produce the evidence required by the general laws of the state that he has paid the poll tax imposed upon him by law for the year next preceding the primary election; and also to establish if the registration law prevails in his voting precinct, that he has been duly registered in the same manner as in a general election under the laws of the state."

Section 21 provides that the electors in the primary shall vote in their districts, as required by the general laws of the state.

"Sec. 22. That it shall be unlawful for any voter in said primary to vote in the same, except with the party of his political affiliation; but this provision shall not apply so as to prevent any voter from changing his political affiliation by an open declaration to that effect made at the time he casts his vote to the judges of the primary, which change shall, by the clerks, be noted on the poll lists."

This section also makes provision for challenging voters and for keeping poll lists and tally sheets, the certification of the counts, and returns of the vote.

Section 23 provides that one set of poll lists and tally sheets are to be sealed and addressed to the county court clerk and another set to the state board of primary election commissioners. Penalties are then prescribed for the punishment of any officer of election who is guilty of violating the requirements of the act.

Section 24 provides for the enforcement of the Dortch law or Australian ballot system wherever it applies to general elections.

The act in question also provides for the election of two primary election boards, prescribes the manner of their election, and defines their duties as follows:

"Sec. 10. That there shall be, and is by this act, created two primary election boards in and for the state of Tennessee, composed of three members each, and to be known respectively as the 'Democratic State Board of Primary Election Commissioners' and the 'Republican State Board of Primary Election Commissioners,' which said boards shall have and exercise the powers conferred and perform the duties prescribed by this act.

"Sec. 11. That the respective members of said state boards shall be elected by the vote of the General Assembly in joint session prior to the first Monday of April, 1909, at a date fixed by joint vote of the General Assembly during each

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