ments and returns so received the board shall proceed to examine and make a statement of the whole number of votes given at any such election for each of the offices of governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorneygeneral, state superintendent, railroad commissioner and commissioner of insurance, or any other state officer, if any there shall be; and another statement of the votes given for representative in congress in each congressional district; each of which statements shall show the names of the persons to whom such votes shall have been given for either of the said offices, and the whole number of votes given to each, distinguishing the several districts and counties in which they were given. Such board shall certify such statements to be correct and subscribe their names thereto; and shall thereupon determine what persons have been, by the greatest number of votes, duly elected to such offices or either of them, and shall make out and subscribe on each statement a certificate of such determination and deliver the same to the secretary of state. Powers and duties. Duties of state canvassers are ministerial; they cannot take proof as to frauds: Att'y Gen. v. Barstow, 4 Wis. 567; State v. Board, 36 id. 498. House of representatives can alone determine right to office of member of congress, but supreme court may compel state board to determine which candidate is entitled to their certificate: State v. Board, 36 Wis. 498. If some of the returns upon which the votes for member of congress are, after the canvass thereof, declared invalid, and lawful returns are subsequently made, the successors in office of the former state board of canvassers may be compelled to canvass the later returns: Belknap v. Board, 95 Mich. 155. The duty to send for corrected returns in a proper case is obligatory: State v. Board, 36 Wis. 498. It is said of a similar provision as to sending for returns that it clearly evidences the intention of the legislature that the error or omission of duty by the county clerk should not result in disfranchising the voters of any county: Rich v. Board, 100 Mich. 453. 149. Statements to be recorded and published-Certificate of election. [Sec. 94b, Statutes of 1898.] Said secretary shall record in his office each certified statement and determination so made by said board, and forthwith make and transmit to each of the persons thereby declared to be elected a certificate of his election under the lesser seal, and cause a copy of such certified statements and determinations to be published in a newspaper printed at the seat of government. He shall also prepare a like certificate, attested by him as secretary of state, and addressed to the house of representatives in that congress for which any person shall have been chosen, of the due election of such person as a representative of this state in congress, and transmit the same to the said house at the first meeting thereof; and if any of the persons so chosen at such election shall have been elected to supply a vacancy in the office of such representative it shall be mentioned in such certificate. Effect of certificate. The person holding a certificate of election to a public office will be considered as entitled thereto as against all the world except a de facto officer. State ex rel. McCole v. Kersten (Wis.), 95 N. W. 120. 150. Returns and canvass of presidential vote. [Sec. 94c, Statutes of 1898.] Whenever in the opinion of the governor the statement of votes given for electors of president and vice-president will not be received from any county before the time fixed for canvassing such votes, he shall appoint a messenger to obtain such statement from the county clerk, and such clerk shall immediately, on the demand of such messenger, make out and deliver to him the statement required, which the messenger shall deliver to the secretary of state as soon as possible, and it shall be filed and recorded by him. For the purpose of canvassing the votes given for such electors the board of state canvassers shall meet at the office of the secretary of state on the Tuesday next after the fourth Monday in November in the year such electors shall be chosen, or sooner if certified copies of the statements of the votes shall have been received from all the counties, and in case all the said copies shall not have been received on said day the board may adjourn from day to day until the same shall be received, not exceeding three days. The board shall proceed in examining and making a statement of the votes, and in determining and certifying the persons chosen as electors, in the manner prescribed by law to be pursued by them in the canvass for state officers, and the secretary of state shall likewise file and record such statement and determination. He shall, without delay, cause a copy, under his hand and the lesser seal, of the determination of said board to be transmitted and delivered to each of the persons so declared to be elected; and, whenever necessary, may employ messengers for that purpose. 151. Canvass, record and publication of vote on question submitted. [Sec. 94d, Statutes of 1898.] For the purpose of canvassing and ascertaining the result of the vote taken at any general election upon any proposed amendment to the constitution, or upon any proposition submitted to a vote of the people by the legislature, the secretary of state shall appoint a meeting of the state board of canvassers to be held at his office on or before the fifteenth day of December next after such vote is taken; at which meeting he shall lay before the board the statements received by him of the votes given in the several counties for and against such amendment or for and against such proposition. The board shall proceed to examine such statements and ascertain and determine the result, and shall have the same power therefor as is given by section 94a, and shall make and certify under their hands a statement of the whole number of votes given for and against such amendment, and thereupon determine whether such amendment has been approved and ratified by a majority of the electors voting thereon, and shall make and subscribe on such statement a certificate of such determination. They shall also make and certify under their hands a statement of the whole number of votes given for and against such proposi tion, and shall thereupon determine whether such proposition has been approved, ratified or adopted and subscribe on such statement a certificate of such determination. The secretary of state shall record in his office such certified statements and determinations; and if it shall appear that such amendment or proposition has been approved, ratified or adopted as aforesaid, he shall also make a record thereof, and cause such record to be bound in the volume containing the original enrolled laws passed at the next succeeding session of the legis lature, and cause such record to be published with the laws thereof. Re-canvass of vote. Where it appears, after the board of state canvassers has canvassed the votes cast on the adoption of a constitu tional amendment, and after the officers composing that board have gone out of office, that a mistake was made in rejecting the returns from one county, and that the returns from another county were fraudulently altered, the cumulative result being to reverse the determination made by the canvassers, the succeeding board may be compelled by mandamus to re-canvass the votes: Rich v. Board, 100 Mich. 453. 152. 1898.] Method of making canvass. [Sec. 94e, Statutes of tain the result of any election, shall canvass only the regular returns made by the county boards of canvassers as provided in this chapter, and shall in no case canvass or count any additional or supplemental returns or statements made by any such board or by any other board or person whatever; nor shall the board of state canvassers canvass or count any statement or return of the result of any canvass which shall have been made by any county board of canvassers at any other time than that mentioned in this chapter. The board cannot receive testimony aliunde the returns before it to sustain or overthrow them. Hence, if a return is, on its face, what the law requires it to be, however fraudulent or false it may be in fact, it must be received and the votes returned therein must be canvassed. The returns required by law, and these only, must form the basis of the canvass: Att'y Gen. v. Barstow, 4 Wis. 467; State v. Board, 36 id. 498. Returns which are void on their face must be rejected: State v. Board, 36 Wis. 498. If it is shown upon application for a mandamus requiring the state board to disregard a return made by county canvassers that their return, though regular on its face, is based upon an illegal canvass, the court may order such board to ignore such return; and if a legal canvass of the vote so returned is subsequently made the return thereof may be canvassed: People v. Rice, 129 N. Y. 449. If a candidate voted for has died since the election, any citizen may make application to a court for mandamus to compel the canvassers to reject and disregard a paper which purports to be a return of a canvass of votes, but which is not properly executed and does not give the results of a legal canvass: People v. Rice, supra. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. 153. Service of process on elector. [Sec. 94f, Statutes of 1898.] During the day on which any general, special, town or charter election shall be held no civil process shall be served on any elector, entitled to vote at such election, in the precinct, in which he is entitled to vote or while going to or returning therefrom. Extent of privilege. The implication from this section is that service of process on election day upon one who is not an elector is good: Weil v. Geier, 61 Wis. 414, 417. The statute only extends to process which is served on the person of the elector: Corlies v. Holmes, 20 Wend. 681. 154. Plurality of vote selects-Effect of formalities. [Sec. 94g, Statutes of 1898.] In all elections for the choice of any officers, unless it is otherwise expressly provided by law, the person having the highest number of votes for any office shall be deemed to have been duly elected to that office, and whenever it shall satisfactorily appear that any person has received a plurality of the legal votes cast at any election for any office, the canvassers shall give to such person a certificate of election, notwithstanding the provisions of law may not have been fully complied with in noticing or conducting the election or canvassing or returning the votes, so that the real will of the plurality may not be defeated by any informality. Notice of election. See note to paragraph 84. Informal returns. See note to paragraph 130. Plurality elects. If an election is honestly conducted and illegal votes are not received, the fact that legal votes were rejected, through error of judgment only, in numbers sufficient to have changed the result, does not invalidate the election. The candidate who receives the plurality of the votes is elected: State v. Hanson, 87 Wis. 177. 155. Officers' and messengers' compensation. [Sec. 94h, Statutes of 1898.] A reasonable compensation shall be paid to inspectors and clerks of election, and to ballot clerks, county and district canvassers and messengers employed and performing duties under the provisions of this chapter, to be fixed by the town, village or county board or common council, and paid from the treasury of the town, village, county or city by which employed. The messenger of the canvassing board of a senate or assembly district shall be paid by the county to which he shall be sent. Every messenger sent by the governor, secretary of state or state board of canvassers shall be paid out of the state treasury a reasonable compensation to be fixed by the secretary of state. 156. Election and registry blanks. [Sec. 94i, Statutes of 1898.] The secretary of state shall make out all necessary blanks, returns and statements to carry out the provisions of law for making the canvass, returns and statements of all elections, general, special and judicial, and for making the registers required by law, applications for registry in writing, and affidavits of non-registered voters and freeholders corroborating the same. Such blanks shall contain the necessary |