Carle v. Musgrove

Roberts, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from an order of the Court below, directing the appellants, officers of registration of the seventh precinct of the eighteenth ward of Baltimore City, to enter the name of Augustus W. Musgrove as a qualified and registered voter in the register of voters of said precinct and ward. The facts as disclosed in the ¹⁷⁶ record are, that the petitioner, Musgrove, when he filed his petition, lived at No. 1839 McHenry street, in the seventh precinct of the eighteenth ward of Baltimore City, and had so resided for four years previously to the filing of his said petition; that during the September sittings of the year 1892, he applied to the appellants for registration; that upon examination for registration by the appellants, it was found that the petitioner had the qualifications to entitle hi'm to registration, but the fact was disclosed that the petitioner had, in the year 1886, registered in Howard County as a qualified voter; ■ thereupon the appellants, as a condition precedent to his being registered, demanded from him a certificate from the registration officers of Howard County, containing the particulars of his said registration in skid county, and establishing the fact that his name had been stricken from the registration books of said county. The petitioner then gave evidence showing that he had, previously to his said application to the appellants, and since his registration in Howard County, registered in Baltimore City as a duly qualified voter of the said seventh precinct of the eighteenth ward, and further proved that he had exhibited to the registration officers in the City of Baltimore in 1890, when he last registered, his proper certificate from the registration officers of Howard County, containing the requisite entries and showing that his name had been stricken from the registries of voters in the said county.

There is no controversy whatever concerning the facts of the case, but the contention on the part'of* the appellants is, that the petitioner should have furnished, upon their demand, a proper certificate from the registration officers of Howard County, showing that his name had been stricken from the list of qualified voters of said county. So much of the Act of 1892, ch. 239, sec. 19, which need be here quoted, reads as follows: “When ¹⁷⁷ any person applying for registration at any sitting of officers ot registration appointed under this Article, shall lie found, upon proper inquiry, to have been previously registered within the State, under the provisions of this Article, the officers of registration, to whom such application is made, before registering such person, shall demand, and receive from him a certificate of his last previous registration, made by the officer of registration or by the clerk of the Court in whose custody the duplicate registries of voters may then be, in which such applicant was formerly registered, showing the entries relating to said person in such former registration, and showing that the name of such person has been stricken from the duplicate registries of voters in the election precinct, or election district, in which he was last