CopyCited 15 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 1953 Fla. LEXIS 1361
...PATTERSON, Associate Justice. This cause comes before this court on appeal by respondents below from a final decree of the Circuit Court of Duval County entered upon a petition for declaratory decree, seeking a construction of and testing the validity of sections 97.111 and 101.111, Florida Statutes 1951, F.S.A., being sections of the Election Code of 1951....
...was construed by the respondent Supervisor of Registration. He therefore found that if challenged in either the Democratic Primary then to be held in October of 1952 or in the general election of November 1952, he could not make the oath required by section 101.111....
...Consequently, by the combined effect of the two sections his right to vote in both or either of such elections was impaired. His petition, filed July 30, 1952, challenges the constitutionality of section 97.111 as construed by the Supervisor of Registration, and challenges section 101.111 as will appear later in this opinion....
...on on section 97.111 below, there is no question before us as to that section except whether the court below should have proceeded to such adjudication. In addition to the challenge to section 97.111, the petition challenged the constitutionality of section 101.111, initially as applied only to general elections, but by amendment of the petition, as applied also to party primary elections....
...Prior to such amendment, and based upon admissions in respondents' answers, petitioner procured a summary final decree styled "Summary Final Decree upon that portion of the Petition contained in Paragraph Four Thereof," the significant provisions of which are: *873 "3. That in the application of said section 101.111 to general elections, so much thereof as provides that the affidavit to be tendered to a challenged voter shall contain the words: "that I am a member of the ____ party and that at the last general election I voted for a majority of the nominees of such party;" is unconstitutional, null and void. "4. That, after eliminating from said section 101.111 in its application to general elections, the aforesaid invalid portion, the true intent and meaning thereof is that the affidavit directed to be tendered to a challenged voter at a general election shall not contain the words quoted i...
...o assignment of error is addressed to that adjudication and it is therefore not before us for review. The cause below proceeded to final decree, entered on September 19, 1952 wherein it was decreed by the lower court as follows: "(1) That so much of section 101.111 of the Election Code of 1951 as purports to require any elector offering to vote at any primary election to make an affidavit that at the last general election he voted for a majority of the nominees of any political party is unconsti...
...to make such an affidavit." The respondents have brought this provision of the final decree here for review. It is suggested by petitioner-appellee that inasmuch as he has now changed his registered party affiliation to Republican, the operation of section
101.111 does not now operate to deprive him of his right to vote either in his party primary elections or in general elections, wherefore all questions raised on this appeal are moot as to him. We think, however, that the declaration by the lower court of the invalidity of portions of section
101.111 as applied in primary elections is of sufficient public interest that this court may review it. Pace v. King, Fla.,
38 So.2d 823. The precise question to be decided is whether or not, as applied in a party primary election to a prospective voter situated as petitioner, the party fealty oath contained in section
101.111 of the Election Code of 1951 is unconstitutional and void by reason of either section 1 or section 6 of Article VI of the Constitution of Florida, F.S.A....
...county be deemed a qualified elector at all elections under this Constitution." "Section 6. In all elections by the Legislature, the vote shall be viva voce, and in all elections by the people, the vote shall be by ballot." The party loyalty oath in section 101.111 reads: "____, that I am a member of the ____ party and that at the last general election I voted for a majority of the nominees of such party"....
...619, 96 A.L.R. 572, and State ex rel. Gandy v. Page,
125 Fla. 348,
169 So. 854, have committed this court to the view that party primary elections are elections within the purview of section 1, Article VI, and that therefore the challenged portion of section
101.111 must fall under authority of Riley v....
...the "method and means" of political selection wherein the total qualified electorate voluntarily divides itself into mutually exclusive political parties, the integrity of whose primaries may be protected by statute, such as is accomplished by Sec. 101.111 Florida Statutes 1951....
..."Conceding, as any student of free government must, that the party system is essential to our political life, we can well understand how short lived the party would be unless some means was afforded to maintain party integrity." Mairs v. Peters, Fla.,
52 So.2d 793, 795. We hold that section
101.111, Florida Statutes 1951, F.S.A., as applied to appellee, is valid against the constitutional objections raised....
