Oregon Advisory Opinions February 14, 1946: OAG 46-33 (February 14, 1946)
Collection: Oregon Attorney General Opinions
Docket: OAG 46-33
Date: Feb. 14, 1946
Advisory Opinion Text
OAG 46-33.
The duties of county clerks concerning municipal elections are prescribed by chapter 152, Oregon Laws 1941.
Dear Sir: With your letter of February 6, 1946, you have submitted an ordinance enacting a charter for the City of Marsh-field, changing the name of said city to City of Coos Bay, and relating among other things to the holding of municipal elections of mayor and councilmen. You call my attention to certain provisions thereof relating to the holding of elections in said city, particularly sections 600 to 613, inclusive, of Chapter VII of the charter of Coos Bay.
Section 607 provides:
"As soon as the polls have closed, the election officials at each voting place shall, without opening the ballot box used for electing members of the Council, seal it and send it at once to the County Clerk, or other authorized counting authority. They shall send with it a record of the number of ballots cast therein."
Section 608 provides:
"Under the direction of the County Clerk, or other authorized counting authority, the ballot boxes shall be opened and the number of ballots found therein recorded and compared with the records sent from the corresponding voting places. * * *"
Section 609 requires that the ballots in each ballot box shall be examined and checked for validity, and that the invalid ones shall be separated from the rest.
Section 610 further relates to valid and invalid ballots.
Section 612 sets forth rules for counting ballots, and directs that the result of election shall be determined according to such rules. Said section directs, among other things, that for the purpose of sorting the precincts of the city shall be arranged by the county clerk in an order therein directed, and that exhaustive provisions relating to determining first and second choice, etc., shall be observed by the county clerk.
Chapter 152, Oregon Laws 1941, is an act to provide authority to cities pertaining to their charters. It reads as follows:
"Every city hereby is authorized to provide by its charter for nominating and electing candidates for its municipal offices on a ballot separate and distinct from the state and county ballot at the biennial nominating and general elections and to require that such city ballots shall be received by the judges and clerks of election and deposited in a separate ballot box to be marked 'city ballots.' Such separate ballot boxes shall be provided by the county clerk and delivered and returned by the sheriff as other election supplies are delivered and returned. In every such case the city providing for said separate city ballot and ballot boxes shall reimburse the county
for the cost and expense thereof. Any city requiring separate city ballots and ballot boxes may provide for the nomination and election of its municipal officers by proportional representation, and in such case the city ballot boxes and the ballots shall be returned to the county clerk and, with the assist ance of a sufficient number of the judges and clerks of election, he shall count and canvass the same in accordance with the method that may be provided by such city charter. All election officers shall be governed by the provisions of such charter as to such city elections. The county clerk shall issue certificates of election to the candidates receiving the required proportion of votes. If any such city charter shall provide for the filling of a vacancy that may occur in a municipal office by a recount of the ballots cast at the election at which such office was filled, the county clerk shall conduct such count in the manner prescribed therefor by such charter. In all other respects said city elections and nominations shall be governed by the general election laws in so far as they are not in conflict with this act."
In the absence of any subsequent statute repealing or modifying the provisions of said chapter 152, it is my opinion that its directions as to the duties of the county clerk are within the power of the legislature and mandatory upon such clerks.