Andrews v. Blackman 59 So. 769 131 La. 355, 59 So. 769 (Cite as: 131 La. 355, 59 So. 769) and the candidates. The officers charged with its conduct are merely agents, whose duty it is to facilitate the electors in the free and fair expression of their will, and where that has been accomplished it would be unreasonable to hold, in the absence of an express provision of law to that effect, that the interest of the community shall be sacrificed, the will of the electors set at naught, and the results, as to the candidates, defeated, because, in its accomplishment, or after its accomplishment, the agents under whose direction the election had been held, have failed to follow each *365 and every formal direction prescribed for their guidance. The view thus expressed finds support in many adjudged cases, including among others, the following: Moyer v. Van De Vanter, 12 Wash. 377, 41 Pac. 60, 29 L. R. A. 670, 50 Am. St. Rep. 900; Lucky et al. v. Police Jury et al., 46 La. Ann. 679, 15 South. 89; Madere v. Sellers, 120 La. 812, 45 South. 735; Ross v. Naff et al., 130 La. 590, 58 South. 348; City of New Orleans v. De St. Romes, 9 La. Ann. 573; Burton v. Hicks, 27 La. Ann. 507; Augustin v. Eggleston, 12 La. Ann. 366; Webre v. Wilton, 29 La. Ann. 610; Duson v. Thompson, 32 La. Ann. 861, 871; McKnight v. Ragan, 33 La. Ann. 398. If the framers of the existing statutes regulating primary elections had intended that such elections should be decreed of no effect, notwithstanding that a free and honest expression of the will of the voters may have been obtained, merely because some election officers, either during the progress of the election or after the fact, failed to sign or forward a particular document in a particular manner, or because such officers failed to provide for the elector a booth of particular dimensions, particularly situated, or constructed of particular material, in which to prepare his ballot, they would, no doubt, have found language in which thus to provide a punishment of the innocent for the dereliction of the guilty; but we do not find such language in the existing statutes, and we have neither the authority nor the disposition to supply it. Page 5 the provisions of this act.' It seems to us, however, that the provision thus quoted has no bearing upon the question whether a primary election shall be avoided and annulled for the nonobservance of directory provisions of the law, when such nonobservance in no manner affects the fact that the electors entitled so to do have, in that manner, expressed their choice of a candidate. It would, perhaps, not be going to an extreme to say that, if no election is to be regarded as valid unless every person having any function to discharge in connection with it shall discharge such function according to the letter of the law, there will never be a valid election, unless it be confined to a very few well-informed persons. The learned counsel for the contestee, in his oral and printed argument, has presented a question of jurisdiction, based upon the proposition that, under the statute which we are now considering, the right to contest an election is conferred only upon a candidate 'who shall claim to have been nominated,' and that the contestant before the court, in view of the evidence adduced, has abandoned all such claim, and hence has no standing in court. The contestant has not, however, placed his abandonment of record, and the closing argument of his counsel was by no means definite to that effect. We have, therefore, thought it advisable to deal with the case as we have done, though regretting that we should be compelled to do so under pressure, by reason of the inadequacy of the time allowance imposed by the statute. For the reasons thus assigned, the judgment appealed from is affirmed. 131 La. 355, 59 So. 769 END OF DOCUMENT [2] Section 2 of Act 198 of 1912, amends section 1 of Act 49 of 1906, so as to make it read (in part): 'That the dominant * * * party * * * shall make all nominations * * * by a direct primary election. That any nomination, * * * except as herein provided, shall be illegal, and the Secretary of State is prohibited *366 from placing on the offical ballot the name of any person, as a candidate for any political party, not nominated in accordance with © 2006 Thomson/West. No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works. 139