Elections

OPINION 42-50 October 19, 1942 (OPINION) ELECTIONS RE: Officers You inquire whether a county chairman has the right to appoint himself a member of an election board. Section 951 of the 1913 Laws provides that: The chairman of the board of supervisors in organized townships shall by virtue of his office be inspector of elections." Said statute further provides that: The inspector shall, prior to the opening of the polls in his precinct, appoint as judges of election two qualified electors of such precinct who shall have been resident freeholders therein for at least ninety days next preceding such election, and who are members of different political parties and of the parties which cast the highest number of votes at the preceding general election; if the inspector is disqualified from acting, the other two members of the board of township supervisors and the clerk shall, at least ten days before the date of holding the election, hold a meeting for the purpose of filling such vacancy. Such vacancy shall be filled by appointing an inspector who shall belong to the same political party as the disqualified inspector, and the name of the inspector so appointed shall at once be reported to the county auditor by such clerk." An inspector is disqualified if he is a candidate for office or the father, mother, father-in- law, mother-in-law, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother, sister, brother-in- law, sister-in-law of any candidate at the election. ALVIN C. STRUTZ Attorney General