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56 CITIZENSHIP AND SUFFRAGE IN MARYLAND.
--Governor's duties in issuing the commission and administering the oath of
office are purely ministerial, and so 'a mandamus will issue to compel their
execution.
_ The next questions were: Has the Governor the jurisdiction and..the
power, under the Constitution and laws, to hear and decide such a contest?
The court decided that, under the Constitution, he has the jurisdiction,
and,
by a majority' vote, that he has the power. But the power so conferred is
-not a- self-executing one. The Governor must be clothed by law with the
authority, means and instrumentalities needed to execute the power.' Ap-
propriate legislation had not been passed, and the Governor cannot use the
powers of legislation by formulating rules for the contest. Neither can the
courts formulate rules for him, for they are not the legislative body.
There-
fore, the Governor cannot hear the contest, and Wallis, if fraudulently de-
prived of an actual majority, has no remedy. We see at once how unjust a re-
sult this was, and yet the reasoning of the court, though technical, was
sound.
- - Since the merits of the question were not permitted to be enquired into,
matters were left in a condition unsatisfactory to all honorable men. The
law was grievously defective, and it is significant of the incapacity of the
Legislature, or its lack of a desire for the law's improvement, that it has
suffered the two lac2cnce in the Maryland laws, pointed out by the Court of
Appeals, to remain there until this day.
As a result of the disgraceful scenes attending the election in Baltimore
-in 1875, the Legislature passed ail 1Act,3 creating a board of three
Supervisors
of Election .for Baltimore, and transferring to them the powers previously
possessed by the Police Board.
- This Board of Supervisors is to be appointed by the Governor, biennially,
and to serve without pay. They must appoint, not less than three weeks
=before each annual election, three election judges for each precinct, one
of
these-"ng named as presiding judge. These judges shall not be all of the
same party, shall be legal voters of their respective precincts, and must
not hold
any office, National, State or municipal. The Board may remove these judges
at any time. Clerks were also placed in the appointment of this Board.
The Board of Police was directed to lay out anew the wards into precincts,
placing about six hundred voters in each. Laws regarding contested elec-
tions' and revisions of the registration lists' were passed, and the Board
of
Police Commissioners" were directed to take a census of legal voters one
month before such revision. The results of the census were to be given to
tile
registration officials of each ward, and clerks of court were made
custodians of
the registration lists.
(1) Majority reliAd on Const., art. 5, sec. 2; minority on art. 3, sec. 47.
(2) Tide Const., art. 3, sec. 56.
(3) Statute of 1878 ch. CCXXIII.
(4) By Statute of 188, ch. CCCXXIII. Thirty days after ordinary election,
and ten after special are allowed to
open a contest. Statute of 18.6, ch. CCXLVII.
(5) Statute of 1876, ch. CCXXV I.
(6) Statute of 1876, ch. CCXLIX. Still in force.
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