Lucas v. Ringsrud

• Decision Date: 28 October 1892
• Citation: 53 N.W. 426,3 S.D. 355
• Parties: LUCAS et al. v. RINGSRUD, Secretary of State.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

53 N.W. 426

3 S.D. 355

LUCAS et al. v. RINGSRUD, Secretary of State.

Supreme Court of South Dakota

October 28, 1892

Syllabus by the Court.

1. An act of the South Dakota legislature, approved March 5, 1891 provides for the printing of ballots containing the names of those whose nominations are certified as required. This certificate is to be filed 30 days before election, and must state the names of the candidates, their business residences, and business addresses, and the offices for which they are nominated, and, if the nominations are made by a convention, it must designate the party represented, and be signed by the chairman and secretary of such convention, who must append to their signatures their business, business addresses, and residences. In case a convention has given power to fill vacancies to a committee, it must file a certificate stating the cause of the vacancy, the name of the person nominated, and the one whose place he takes, together with such other facts as are required in the original certificate.

2. An original certificate purporting to state nominations made by a party convention, without giving the business, residences or business addresses of the candidates, and signed by the chairman and secretary of the convention, without the addition of their residences and business addresses, failed to comply with the law, and when presented was properly rejected by the secretary of state.

3. A certificate purporting to fill a vacancy in a nomination presented for filing less than 30 days before an election stating neither the cause of the vacancy, whether by resignation, declination, or death, in the original nomination, nor the authority to fill it, nor giving the name of the one whose place is to be filled, is a failure to comply with the provisions of the act, and the certificate should not be filed, nor the nominee thus designated be printed on the ballots.

4. When no certificate of original nomination has been filed in the office of the secretary of state, there can be no substitution of names, because the secretary of state has nothing in his office showing who had originally been nominated for the office, and whose place the substitute is to fill.

Application by J. A. Lucas, chairman, etc., and others, for a writ of mandamus to compel A. O. Ringsrud, secretary of state, to file in his office the certificate of nominations made by the Prohibition party in the state of South Dakota. Writ denied.

Shunk & Hughes, for plaintiffs. Horner & Stewart, for defendant.

BENNETT P. J.

This is an original application for a writ of mandamus to compel the defendant to file in his office the certificate of nominations made by the Prohibition party of this state. The facts as they appear in the affidavit which is the basis of the application are in substance as follows; which facts are however, denied by the defendant: On the 9th day of June, 1892, a mass convention of the Prohibition party was held in the city of Watertown for the purpose of electing delegates to the national convention of that party, and for placing in nomination presidential electors. At that convention the following named persons were duly and regularly nominated for the office of presidential electors, to be voted for at the general election, viz.: J. P. Hewes, J. S. Akers, and A. R. Cornwall. A state central committee was also appointed, and empowered to fill any and all vacancies that then or thereafter should exist, either by resignation or by the certificate of nomination being or becoming insufficient or inoperative. This committee was duly organized by the appointment of a chairman and secretary, and, under the power delegated to it by the convention, nominated one C. B. Warren as one of the presidential electors of said party. A certificate of these persons named as presidential electors was executed by the chairman and secretary of said convention and of the executive committee. On the 8th day of October, 1892, it was tendered to the Honorable A. O. Ringsrud, secretary of state, for filing in his office. On the 14th day of September, 1892, another mass convention of this party was held in Sioux Falls, for the purpose of placing in nomination candidates for members of congress and for state offices. At this convention candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and attorney general were named, and the state central committee was empowered to fill any and all vacancies then or thereafter existing on said ticket, and to remedy or cure any defect which might arise in any certificate that might be required to be filed by the statute in the office of the secretary of state. The central committee afterwards did nominate and name certain persons for the remaining state offices which were not named by the convention, and made out a certificate of such nominations, which was signed by the chairman and secretary of the committee and chairman and secretary of the convention. These certificates were presented to the defendant, as secretary of state, for filing, on the 19th day of October, 1892, which he refused to do because the residences and business addresses of the nominees were not stated therein, and for the further reason that the residences, business, and business addresses of the chairman and secretary of the said convention and of the state central committee were not added to their respective names, and because it was not presented within the time prescribed by law. On the 20th day of October, 1892, the state central committee again met, as is stated in the affidavit, for the purpose of curing the claimed insufficiencies or inoperativeness of the previous certificates. But instead of amending or supplying the deficiencies of the former certificates, the committee proceeded "to place in nomination a full ticket of presidential...