SOUTH CAROLINA. 



723 



eral and William II. Stone, Attorney-General. 



All of tlu-.' \vore Republicans, and Hayne, 

 (.'.inlo/.o, and Dunn, were candidates for re- 

 elect ion. M. J. Hirsch, cbuirman of the Com- 

 mittee on Privileges and Elections of tbe House 

 of Representatives, was also by law a member 

 of the board, but did not act on this occasion. 

 Soon after tbe assembling of the board, Gen- 

 eral Conner, counsel for the Democratic can- 

 didates, submitted the following paper as to 

 the jurisdiction of the board: 



On behalf of the citizens of the State whom we 

 represent, and of the Democratic candidates on the 

 State ticket, we submit that all acts of the General 

 Assembly authorizing the Board of State Canvassers 

 to hear and ducide all oases under protest or contest 

 that may arise in regard to the election of electors 

 for President and Vice-President, members of Con- 

 press, and all officers elected at any general election 

 huld in this State, are in violation of section 2 of 

 Article I. of the constitution, and therefore uncon- 

 stitutional and void. 



And on behalf of the parties aforesaid we demand 

 that the Board of State Canvassers now assembled 

 shall not hear or decide any such cases of contest or 

 protest, but shall only act ministerially in ascertain- 

 ing, from the returns and statements forwarded by 

 tlie boards of county canvassers, the persons who 

 have received the greatest number of votes for the 

 offices for which they were respectively candidates, 

 and declare the same and certify it to the Secretary 

 of State. 



The laws of the State require the votes cast 

 to be counted immediately upon the closing of 

 the polls by the precinct managers, who for- 

 ward statements of the results to the Board of 

 County Canvassers. From these statement* 

 the county canvassers make the proper county 

 statements, and forward them with the pre- 

 cinct managers' returns, the poll-lists, and all 

 papers appertaining to the election, to the 

 Board of State Canvassers, who make the prop- 

 er statements and determinations, declaring 

 duly elected the persons who have received 

 the greatest number of votes, whereupon cop- 

 ies of such statements and determinations 

 are forwarded to such persons-. This is appli- 

 cable to all elections except those for Governor 

 and Lieutenant-Governor, in which the returns 

 are sealed up in the respective counties and 

 transmitted to the Secretary of State, who is 

 to deliver them to the Speaker of the House 

 of Representatives at the next ensuing session 

 of the General Assembly ; and during the first 

 week of the session, or as soon as the General 

 Assembly shall have organized by the election 

 of the presiding officers of the two Houses, 

 the Speaker shall open and publish them in 

 the presence of both Houses, and the person 

 having the highest number of votes shall be 

 Governor. The Board of State Canvassers 



CHARLESTON, FROM THE BAT. 



has jurisdiction by statute to decide all cases 

 under protest or contest that may arise when 

 the power to do so does not by the constitu- 

 tion reside in some other body. 



On behalf of the Democratic candidates it 

 was not denied that the statute gave to the 

 board power to hear and determine cases of 

 protest and contest; but it was contended 

 that to hear or decide cases of protest or con- 

 test would be an exercise of judicial functions, 

 and that, as the board was composed of mem- 

 bers of the Executive branch of the State gov- 

 ernment, the statute vesting in it such powers 

 was in violation of that provision of the con- 

 stitution, which prohibits executive officers 

 from exercising judicial functions; that no 



judge can sit in his own case (three members 

 of the Board of Canvassers being candidates) 

 or in a case in which he is interested ; and 

 that questions relating to the election of mem- 

 bers of the Legislature were by the constitu- 

 tion vested in that body. 



On the 14th R. M. Sims and -certain other 

 persons, as Democratic candidates and citi- 

 zens, applied to the Supreme Court of the 

 State for a writ of prohibition to restrain the 

 board from exercising any judicial functions 

 in regard to the protests and contests, and 

 from doing anything else than ascertaining 

 from the managers 1 returns and the statements 

 forwarded by the Board of County Canvassers 

 the persons who had received the greatest 



