Ramos v. Board of Registrars of Voters of Norfolk

• Decision Date: 05 January 1978
• Citation: 371 N.E.2d 1372,374 Mass. 176
• Parties: Paul RAMOS et al. 1 v. BOARD OF REGISTRARS OF VOTERS OF NORFOLK et al. 2
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 1372

371 N.E.2d 1372

374 Mass. 176

Paul RAMOS et al. ¹ v. BOARD OF REGISTRARS OF VOTERS OF NORFOLK et al. ²

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Norfolk.

Argued April 7, 1977.

Decided Jan. 5, 1978.

Thomas M. White, Walpole, for defendants.

Anne Hoffman, Roxbury, for plaintiffs.

Before HENNESSEY, C. J., and QUIRICO, BRAUCHER and ABRAMS, JJ.

QUIRICO, Justice.

The plaintiffs (inmates), who are prisoners incarcerated at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Norfolk (Norfolk), brought an action in the county court, on September 29, 1976, seeking a judgment ordering the defendant board of registrars (registrars) to hold a voter registration session at Norfolk. ³ Following a hearing on October 1, 1976, the single justice found that ten or more voters of the town of Norfolk (town) had filed with the registrars a petition pursuant to G.L. c. 51, § 42B, requesting the registrars to hold a registration session at Norfolk, and that the registrars refused to hold such a session. The single justice ordered the registrars to hold the registration session at Norfolk on or before October 5, 1976, and, in connection therewith, to comply with all the requirements of G.L. c. 51, § 42B. However, he found that the complaint did not raise for determination any issue concerning the eligibility of any inmate at Norfolk to register or be registered to vote, and by his entry of judgment, he intimated no opinion as to such an issue.

Pursuant to the order, the registrars held voter registration sessions at Norfolk on October 4 and 5, 1976, at which six hundred twenty-one inmates completed affidavits of registration. Each affiant listed as his residence the address of the correctional institution. After completing the affidavits, the affiants were asked a series of questions concerning sentence, prior residences, prior registration to vote, marital status and parole eligibility. Some of the affiants answered the questions propounded by the registrars and others refused to answer the questions. Two of the affiants, not parties to the present suit, were held by the registrars to be qualified voters and were registered because they were domiciled in the town at the time their sentences were imposed. The registrars determined that each of the remaining six hundred nineteen prospective registrants did not meet the qualifications for registration due to the registrars' finding that none was domiciled within the town.

On October 5, 1976, the inmates filed an amended complaint with the single justice, who informed the inmates that he would treat the amended complaint as a new action and would transfer the case to the Superior Court. Thereafter, the inmates filed the amended complaint as a new action in the Superior Court seeking both injunctive and declaratory relief with respect to their alleged right to be registered as voters in the town. The inmates sought preliminary relief enjoining the registrars from (1) failing to place in their files those affidavits which established on their face that the affiants were qualified voters in the town, and (2) failing to add to the current annual register the names of those persons whose affidavits established on their face that they were entitled to be registered in the town. After a hearing on October 5, 1976, a judge of the Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order granting relief as requested by the inmates, and scheduled a hearing on the preliminary injunction for October 14, 1976. On that date, the inmates were certified as a class, a stipulation of the facts was filed, and argument was heard on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment.

On October 21, 1976, the Superior Court judge allowed the registrars' motion for summary judgment and vacated the temporary restraining order previously entered. On October 25, 1976, final judgment was entered. The judge entered judgment to the effect that the inmates were not residents of the town and were not domiciled in the town and, consequently, that they were not entitled to be registered as voters of the town. The judgment also directed that the names of any inmates registered pursuant to any previous order of the court be expunged from the voting records. The inmates then filed a motion for a stay of execution of the judgment, which was denied. On October 26, 1976, the inmates filed a new motion in the county court for a stay of execution, or, in the alternative, for an order restoring injunctive relief. That proceeding was transferred to the Appeals Court, where the motion was denied after a hearing by a single justice. The inmates appealed from that denial and filed a motion to convene the full bench of the Appeals Court for an emergency session. That motion was denied. On November 1, 1976, the inmates again filed in the county court a motion for a stay of execution, or, for an order restoring injunctive relief. After hearing, that motion also was denied.

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