[Deschler's Precedents, Volume 2, Chapters 7 - 9]
[Chapter 9.  Election Contests]
[D. Defenses]
[Â§ 14. Contestant's Credentials and Qualifications]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[Page 1020]
 
                               CHAPTER 9
 
                           Election Contests
 
                              D. DEFENSES
 
Sec. 14. Contestant's Credentials and Qualifications

    Just as the contestee's credentials and qualifications may be 
grounds for bringing an election contest (see Sec. 9, supra), so may 
the contestant's credentials and qualifications be raised as a basis 
for dismissing an election 
contest.                          -------------------

Contestant's Standing

Sec. 14.1 An elections contest may be dismissed where it appears that 
    the contestant was not a candidate of a registered political party 
    in the state.

    In McEvoy v Peterson (Sec. 52.2, infra), a 1944 Georgia contest, 
the House dismissed an elections contest where it appeared, inter alia, 
that contestant had attempted to run for the First Congressional 
District of Georgia seat as an ``independent Republican'' though there 
was no such political party in Georgia.(13)~
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13. The ``standing'' of a contestant to bring an election contest is 
        discussed below, under ``Parties,'' Sec. 19, infra.
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Invalid Elections

Sec. 14.2 Contestants selected through an ``election'' held without any 
    authority of law in the state lack standing to bring an election 
    contest.

    In the 1965 Mississippi election contest of Wheadon et al. v 
Abernethy et al. (Sec. 61.2, infra), the House dismissed election 
contests brought by contestants that had been selected at an unofficial 
``election'' held by persons in Mississippi from Oct. 30 through Nov. 
2, 1964.
    The contestants were all citizens, none of whom had been candidates 
in the official November 1964 election for Members of the U.S. House of 
Representatives. The ``election'' that had selected the contestants, by 
contrast, was held without any authority of law in the state.
    The contestants had urged the unseating of the contestees and 
vacating of the official election on the basis of the alleged 
disenfranchisement of large numbers of Negro voters from the electoral 
process through intimidation and violence.