Thompson v. Haskell

• Decision Date: 01 June 1909
• Docket Number: Case Number: 694
• Parties: THOMPSON et al. v. HASKELL, Governor.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1909 OK 140

102 P. 700

24 Okla. 70

THOMPSON et al. v. HASKELL, Governor.

Case Number: 694

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: June 1, 1909

Syllabus

¶0 COUNTIES--Alteration--Elections--Contests. An election having been held under the provisions of section 4, art. 17, Const. (Bunn's Ed. sec. 326), and sections 1 to 10, inclusive, art. 1, c. 26, pp. 275-279, Sess. Laws 1907-08, for the purpose of detaching certain territory from Kiowa county and annexing the same to Tillman county, neither (a) can a resident taxpayer of said proposed detached territory, nor (b) a resident taxpayer of said county, not within said proposed detached territory, nor (c) both, maintain an action for the purpose of contesting such election and restraining the Governor from issuing a proclamation as to the result thereof.

Dunn, J., dissenting.

Error from District Court, Logan County; A. H. Huston, Judge.

Action by G. D. Thompson and others against C. N. Haskell, Governor. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiffs bring error. Affirmed.

On the 4th day of January, 1909, the plaintiffs in error, G. D. Thompson and L. P. Lorance, as plaintiffs, began this action by petition in the district court of Logan county, alleging that the said G. D. Thompson was then at the times thereinafter stated a citizen, resident, and tax payer of Hunter township, Kiowa county, Okla., and that the said L. P. Lorance was then and at the times thereinafter stated a citizen, resident, and taxpayer of Kiowa county, Okla., and instituted said suit in behalf of themselves and all other citizens, residents, and taxpayers of said Hunter township, Kiowa county, similarly situated that on the 18th day of November, 1908, the defendant, as Governor, issued his proclamation to the voters of said township, calling a special election in order that the voters of said township might vote on the question as to whether or not all of ranges 16, 17, 18, and that portion of range 19 lying east of the North Fork of Red river, and all being west of the Indian Meridian, in township 1 north, embracing all of what is known as Hunter township in Kiowa county, should be annexed to and become a part of Tillman county; that said election was attempted to be held in said township on the 29th day of December, 1908, but that said pretended election was void, and that no legal election was held on said day, and the result of the votes cast at said pretended election is void for the following reasons: That said election was required to be held under the election laws of the state of Oklahoma, and that public notice thereof should be given by publication for three sucvessive weeks before the day of such election in the Manitou Field Glass, a newspaper of general circulation in the town of Manitou, Tillman county, and by posting a copy of said proclamation at some public place in each voting precinct in said township; that said proclamation was not posted as therein required in the voting precincts in said township, and that no notice of said election was given as required by law, and therefore said election was void; that at said pretended election improper influences were issued by the county of Tillman in order to induce the citizens and voters of said township to vote for said annexation; that said Hunter township is situated in a remote part of Kiowa county, and that no bridges have been built over the streams in said township, although such bridges are very necessary for the public travel and convenience of the inhabitants of said township; and that parties interested in causing said territory to be annexed to Tillman county prior to said election, and for the purpose of improperly and corruptly influencing the voters of said Hunter township, caused to be generally posted and circulated in said township circulars stating that Tillman county had in its treasury the sum of $ 7,000 which could be used for the building of bridges, and promising and pledging said Tillman county to build bridges in said Hunter township and especially a bridge over Deep Red creek where a bridge was very much needed by many of the voters in said township; that said circular was intended to convey to the voters of said township the promise that the $ 7,000 in the treasury of Tillman county available for the building of bridges, and no part of which had been raised by any taxation in Hunter township, should be donated to said township for the purpose of building bridges; that by corrupt and unlawful promises many persons were induced to vote for the annexation of said territory to Tillman county who would not have so voted but for said corrupt and improper circular and promises; that sufficient voters were thus induced to vote for the annexation of said territory to Tillman county to change the result, and but for said corrupt and improper circular and promise the said proposition would not have been carried; that said proclamation provided that notice of said election should be given by publication for three successive weeks before the day of election in the Manitou Field Glass; that said Manitou Field Glass is a paper of very small circulation in Kiowa county, and that the terms of said proclamation were not complied with, in that the first publication was on the 26th day of November, 1908, the second on the 3d day of December, 1908, the third on the 10th day of December, 1908, and the fourth and last on the 17th day of December, 1908, which does not comply with the requirements of said proclamation, because said notice should have been published for the three weeks next preceding said election; that the Manitou Field Glass is a newspaper published in Tillman county, and is not published in Kiowa county; that said election was not held as provided by the election laws of the state of Oklahoma, in that opposing factions were not allowed counters at said election, but said counters were all appointed from one faction, to wit, the faction favoring the annexation of said territory to Tillman county, with the exception of one precinct in which a counter of the opposing faction was allowed; that said election was not conducted fairly and according to law, but many fraudulent and illegal votes were allowed to be cast, mutilated ballots were counted in favor of the annexation of said territory to Tillman county, which ought not to have been counted, and that, on a recount and re-examination of said votes, a sufficient number of illegal votes will be discovered and sufficient mutilated ballots which were counted and which should not have been counted to change the result, but that, owing to the limited time allowed the plaintiffs, they cannot at this time set forth said alleged frauds more particularly; that two of said election officers in the absence of the secretary canvassed the official count of said vote on the night of the election in the county clerk's office in the town of Hobart, in Kiowa county, which officers were violent partisans for the annexation of said territory to Tillman county; that the canvass of said votes was made in the absence of the secretary, whilst said officers knew that said secretary was then on the way to Hobart to assist in said count; that said hasty action in counting said votes in the absence of said secretary was done for the purpose of preventing the plaintiffs and others who desired to contest said election from contesting the same and protesting against said vote and inquiring into the legality of said election and of the votes cast thereat, and from obtaining information in regard to the many illegalities and frauds perpetrated at said election; that the election officers who conducted said election were not unbiased, but were bitter partisans in favor of annexing said territory to Tillman county; that one J. B. Swarts was the inspector at Manitou precinct, and that said Swarts is the person who signed and circulated the handbill corruptly agreeing to divert the bridge fund of Tillman county to build bridges in the territory comprising Hunter township sought to be transferred to Tillman county, in the event it was annexed to said Tillman county, and that, by reason of the circulating said hand bills and the corrupt efforts therein made, the said Swarts was disqualified from acting as inspector of said election, and that the vote cast at said box, which was largely in favor of annexing said township to Tillman county, should be thrown out, and not counted in ascertaining said vote; that at the voting precinct at Sturgis in said county and township, which voted heavily for transferring said territory to Tillman county, and whose vote if thrown out would change the result of said election, the election officers were bitter partisans in favor of transferring said township to Tillman county, and that said election officers, in disregard of their duty, left the voting places, and canvassed the voters and argued with them to vote to transfer said territory to Tillman county, and were in other respects unfair and prejudiced, and did all in their power to induce parties to vote for transferring said territory to Tillman county and discouraged and sought to induce voters who did not wish such transfer to change their votes; that said election was not fair, and was not the free, unbiased, and unbribed will of the voters of said township, but that the majority of 13 which was obtained, and many votes in addition thereto, were obtained for said transfer by reason of the improper and unlawful acts of the election officers and by reason of the inducements held out by said circular before referred to, and by the unfair and fraudulent count of the votes made by the election officers in the absence of the secretary, and before the plaintiffs and other persons who desired could ascertain the facts and protest against said election and the counting of said illegal and fraudulent votes; that the defendant, as Governor of the state of Oklahoma, is about to issue his proclamation, based on the return...