PART VII.

OF ELECTORS AND GENERAL ELECTIONS.

Electors, who are, 75.

PLACE AND TIME FOR HOLDING ELECTIONS.

Where votes to be cast, 70.

Time of holding, 77.

Where elections held, 78.

Division of election districts, 79.

Court or judge may compel division, 80.

Election not held where liquors sold, 81.

Change of place of holding, 82.

NOTICE OF ELECTION HOW GIVEN.

By secretary of state, 83.

By county clerk, 84.

Necessary qualifications of newspaper to publish election notice, 85. By city, village and town officers, 26.

PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTION OF BALLOTS.

Ballots, how printed-Candidates for county superir tendent-Election by candidate of more than one party, 87.

Offices, arrangement of, on ballots-Questions submited to vote, 83. Form of ballots, 89.

Who to provide ballots; expense of printing; correction of error, 90 Number of ballots; sa:nple ballots, 91.

Ballots for school officers, 92.

Distribution of ballots; receipts; proceedings if ballots lost, 93.

POLLING BOOTHS AND PARTY REPRESENTATIVES.

Flag over voting place, 94.

Expense of flag, how paid, 95.

Polling places in fourth class cities, 96.

When to be designated, 97.

Booths, by whom and how made; expense of, 98.

Party representatives, appointment of, 99.

ELECTION OFFICERS AND CONDUCT OF ELECTION.

Election officers, their appointment and qualifications, 100.
Board of canvassers-Officers' oaths, 101.

Polls, opening and closing of; change of time, 102.

Duty of ballot clerks, 103.

Ballot, how marked; use of sample ballot, 104.

Voting party ticket, 105.

Occupancy of shelf, time for, limited-Spoiled ballots, 106.

Aid in marking ballot; oath may be administered; record to be made, 107.

Receipt of ballot at door of polling place, 108.

Depositing unmarked ballots; such ballots void, 109.

Rules for ascertaining voters' intent in marking ballot, 110.

Questions submitted to vote to be certified and notice thereof given,

111.

Ballots on city questions, 112.

Correction of errors in ballots, 113.

Voters' names to be checked-Non-registered elector, how may vote,

114.

Filing and return of poll and registry lists, 115.

Ballot boxes, who to provide, 116.

Boxes to be locked, 117.

Ballot, how voted, 118.

Poll list, how kept; record of sworn voters, 119.

Elector to give residence; entry on poll lists, 120.

Who may challenge person offering to vote; proceedings, 121.

Rules for determining residence of voters, 122.

Ballot of challenged voter to be marked, 123.

Oath to person challenged; when vote to be received, 124.

What votes to be rejected, 125.

Officers not to alter ballot, nor disclose how elector voted, 126.
Proceedings on adjournment of poll, 127.

Inspector may preserve order, 128.

CANVASS OF VOTES AND DELIVERY OF RETURNS.

Canvass, when and how made, 129.

Announcement and return of the result, 130.

Delivery of statements and poll lists; compensation for making, 131. Neglect to deliver, penalty, 132.

Defective ballots; preservation of ballots; destruction of after certain time, 133.

COUNTY CANVASS.

Board of canvassers, when and how to be organized, 134.

Adjournment, cause for-Missing or defective returns, 135.

Returns of county canvassers, how made, 136.

Determination and publication of the result, 137.

Certificate of election, 138.

Duplicate statement, when required, 139.

Same, and duplicate certificate, 140.

Canvass and return of other votes, 141,

DISTRICT CANVASS.

Board of canvassers, how constituted, 142.

Time and place of meeting, 143.

Duty of absent county clerk; missing or informal statements; adjournment, 144.

Statement of result and certificate of election, 145.

STATE CANVASS.

Board of canvassers; disqualification; compensation of persons appointed, 146.

Returns to be recorded; missing returns to be sent for, 147. Meeting of board; obtaining corrected returns; statement of result,

148.

Statement to be recorded and published-Certificate of election, 149. Returns and canvass of presidential vote, 150.

Canvass, record and publication of vote on question submitted, 151. Method of making canvass, 152.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

Service of process on elector, 153.

Plurality of votes elects-Effect of informalities, 154.

Officers' and messengers' compensation, 155.

Election and registry blanks, 156.

Distribution of blanks; failure to use, 157.

75. Electors, who are. [Sec. 12, Statutes of 1898.] Every male person of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, belonging to either of the following classes, who shall have resided in the state for one year next preceding any election, and in the election district where he offers to vote ten days, shall be deemed a qualified elector at such election:

2. Persons of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens conformably to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization.

3. Persons of Indian blood who have once been declared by law of congress to be citizens of the United States, any subsequent law of congress to the contrary notwithstanding.

4.

tribe.

Civilized persons of Indian descent not members of any

5. Any civilized person, being a descendant of the Chippewas of Lake Superior or any other Indian tribe, residing within this state, and not upon any Indian reservation, who shall make and subscribe to an oath before the clerk of the

circuit court or his deputy of the county where such person resides that he is not a member of any Indian tribe, and has no claim upon the United States for aid and assistance from any appropriation made by congress for the benefit of Indians, and that he thereby relinquishes all tribal relations, and all right to claim or receive such aid, shall be entitled, on such oath being filed and recorded, to vote at all elections held in this state, if he is otherwise qualified. The oath so taken, on being corroborated as to the residence and tribal relations of such person by the affidavit of a qualified elector, shall be filed in the office of the clerk before whom it was taken and recorded by him in a book to be provided for that purpose, upon such person paying to said clerk the sum of one dollar.

6. Every woman who is a citizen of this state, of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, who has resided within the state one year and in the election district where she offers to vote ten days preceding any election pertaining to school district matters and the election of school district officers, and who is not a pauper or excluded by section 2 of article 3 of the constitution, may vote at any election pertaining to such matters. and the election of such officers in any town, city or village in which she has so resided.2

Scope of statute. It was said of ch. 288, laws of 1893, which is the substance of this chapter (paragraphs 75-169, 58-66, 67-74) that it had no application to elections for special purposes, as to fix the amount of the fee payable for liquor licenses; and also that it was the latest revision of the laws relating to general elections, and that it may be assumed to comprise all in force relating to that subject: State v. Janesville, 90 Wis. 157.

Residence in the state. The constitution preserves residence in the state in favor of electors who are absent therefrom on business of the United States or of this state. It also provides that residence cannot be gained by persons in the army or navy because they are stationed within, the state. A similar clause does not prevent a person who removes to a county while in the service of the United States from acquiring a residence while in said service, if it is his intention to do

The section referred to is paragraph 2 of this compilation.

* Sec. 1, ch. 285, laws of 1901, amended sec. 428a, statutes of 1898, to read as follows: "Every woman who is a citizen of this state, of the age of twentyone years or upwards (except paupers, persons under guardianship, and persons otherwise excluded by section two of article three of the constitution of Wisconsin), who has resided within the state one year, and in the election district where she offers to vote, ten days next preceding any election pertainto school matters shall have a right to vote at such election. Separate ballot boxes shall be furnished at every election precinct in this state at every primary, general, municipal or special election for the use of women desiring to vote on said school matters, and separate ballots shall also be provided at said elections for the use of said women.'

ing

Chapter 233, laws of 1899, amended sec. 428, statutes of 1898, so as to require thirty days' residence of "every resident elector," to entitle him to vote in any meeting.

so:

People v. Holden, 28 Cal. 123, 137; Devlin v. Anderson, 38 Id. 92; Stewart v. Kyser, 105 Id. 459.

In Illinois "a permanent abode" is an indispensable requisite to the right to vote. Those words mean nothing more than a domicile-a home-which a person is at liberty to leave temporarily as interest or whim may dictate. "It is not required that the elector shall continuously remain at his residence, provided he does not acquire a new residence; and his absence may be long or short, or for definite or indefinite periods, and he does not thereby lose his residence or his right to vote:" Moffett v. Hill, 131 Ill. 239; Carter v. Putnam, 141 Id. 133.

An elector who has changed his residence to another state furnishes a very strong presumption of an intent to abandon it and resume his former one by returning and voting at several consecutive elections: Moffet v. Hill, 131 Ill. 239.

Residence in the election district. Abiding in a place for the purpose of school teaching is not, in general, a sufficient suffrage residence: Crawford v. Wilson, 4 Barb (N. Y.) 504. But it has been held that persons who went to a military post for the purpose of working there, without the intention of returning to their former domicile, acquired a residence: State v. Griffey, 5 Neb. 161. A residence may be acquired without intending to live in the place where the person is for all time. "If he lives in a place, with the intention of remaining for an indefinite period of time, as a place of fixed present domicile, and not as a place of temporary establishment or for mere transient objects it is to all intents and for all purposes his residence:" Sturgeon v. Korte, 34 Ohio St. 525, 535.

The cases bearing upon the right of students at an institution of learning to vote at the place where it is located are not harmonizable. Some of them, and nearly all the older ones, proceed on the theory that the intention of remaining permanently at such place must be entertained. A recent case in Iowa proceeds on this view. It was held in Vandepool v. O'Hanlon, 53 Iowa, 246. that a student at the State university was not a resident of Iowa City although he did not know what he would do after he was graduated, and was not aware that he would leave that place. This is the doctrine held in Pennsylvania: Fry's Election Case, 71 Pa. St. 302, which goes further than the Iowa case. The result reached in Fry's case was that students living in the college town, even though they supported themselves and were emancipated from their father's families, and had no intention of returning to their homes, were not entitled to vote there. It appeared, however, that the students were there for the sole purpose of being educated, and intended to leave on being graduated.

A student who is otherwise qualified and who is emancipated from his father's family, and has abandoned his former domicile, has his residence where he is being educated: Putnam v. Johnson, 10 Mass. 488. Presence at the place where an institution of learning is located is not conclusive as to the right to vote there. If a student has a father living and is a member of his family, returns to spend his vacations with his father and is maintained by him, these circumstances are strong to repel the presumption of a change of domicile. On the other hand, if a student is separated from his father's family, and is not maintained by him, on removing to a college town and