The Resolution of Election Disputes: Legal Principles that Control Election Challenges 59 So. 769 131 La. 355, 59 So. 769 (Cite as: 131 La. 355, 59 So. 769) fies that any one saw how any voter marked his ballot, and, from his testimony, it appears that he made attempts of that kind at Gum precinct; but he was unable to name any voter whose ballot he had seen, or to say how any ballot was stamped or marked. The contestant has alleged (in his opposition to the approval of the report of the experts) that the boxes at Colfax, Fairmount, Bagdad, Bruce's Mill, Dry Prong, Creed, and Buckelew, in Grant parish, are not in contest. The other precincts in that parish are Pollock, Simms, Antonio, Lincecum, Georgetown, Summerfield, Verda, and Montgomery, and, as to them, it is admitted (in the general admission with regard to Grant parish which has been quoted) that the ballots, after being counted, were placed in the ballot boxes, and that the boxes were then sealed and delivered by the commissioners to the proper returning officers and one commissioner (for each box), by whom they were delivered, '*363 so sealed,' to the clerk of the court, in whose custody they remained; that said ballots had not been altered, changed, or tampered with from the time that they were counted and put in the boxes; that the elections were held at the usual polling places, and that no voter was deprived of his right to vote through ignorance of the polling place. We find no oral testimony in regard to Verda, though in view of the confused mass of papers of which the record is composed, and the short time allowed for this examination, it may have escaped our search. For the rest, the witnesses concur to the effect that there was no fraud, intimidation, overlooking of voters in the preparation of their ballots, or other unfair doings. The total vote of the parish was cast as follows: Total white ballots for contestant .... 246 Total yellow ballots for contestant ... 118 Total white ballots for contestee ..... 307 Total yellow ballots for contestee ..... 94 Doubtful ballots ........................ 4 138 Page 4 --Total ............................. 769 H. P. Gray, a commissioner of the Pollock precinct, where 33 yellow ballots were cast for the contestant and 44 for the contestee, testifies that those ballots were received because the voters objected to the numbers on the detachable slips forming part of the white ballots, being under the impression, no doubt, that they would serve to identify the voter with his ballot, whereupon the commissioners, ignorantly, but innocently, told them that they could vote the other ballots, which had no numbers or slips attached to them. There was, however, no intention, either at Pollock or any other precinct, thereby to favor the one candidate or prejudice the other. And the same thing may be said of the failure of the commissioners to sign and swear to the tally sheets, and to forward one set of returns to the *364 chairman of the judicial district committee, whether in Grant parish or Rapides; those omissions having occurred as well in cases where there were majorities for the contestant as where the majorities were in favor of the contestee. On the whole, we are **772 satisfied that the election was fairly conducted; that the result as promulgated represents the declared wishes of a majority (by some 300) of the qualified electors who participated therein; that no one who desired to vote, and was entitled so to do, was deprived of that privilege by reason of any action of the officers conducting the election; and that, if all the errors shown to have been committed were corrected, and all the omissions supplied, the result would be the same--the contestee would still be entitled to the nomination. Opinion. [1] The general and long-established rule in this state, applicable to cases such as this, has been that it is casting of the ballots, by the legally qualified electors, unimpeded by force or fraud, which determines the result, and we do not find that rule to have been abrogated by the legislation of recent years regulating the conduct of primary elections. The parties concerned in a primary election, as in any other, are the community to be affected, the electors who participate, © 2006 Thomson/West. No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works.