Pennington v. Hare’s Empirical Analysis
1895
Citation profile
45 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 45 later decisions — most recently June 2009 · most notably Duncan v. Willis (1957), McCavitt v. Registrars of Voters of Brockton (1982)
45 state decisions — followed in 14 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on State ex rel. Braley v. Gay
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“All that it would be necessary for them to do, in such a case, to decide the election, would be to declare that they intended to vote for a particular candidate. It would enable them to sell the office to the candidate offering the highest price for it, because they would not be called upon for their declaration until a contest arose, after the actual ballots had been counted, and the precise effect of their statement known. They could swear falsely as to their past intentions, without fear of punishment, for how would it be possible to disprove their statements as to their intentions with reference to a supposed act, if perchance they had acted? Cooley, Const. Lim. 781. * * *.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Duncan v. Willis“* * * There is a clear distinction between the provisions and prohibitions in election laws which are personal to the elector, which, if he violates them, it is his own fault, and those which apply to elective officers, over whose conduct he has no control. In the former case they are to be construed as mandatory, as a general rule, and his vote will be rejected if he intentionally fails to comply with them, while in the latter case they are to be construed as directory, unless otherwise expressly, or by necessary implication, so declared by statute.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Johnson v. Swenson““The statute does not, however, prescribe any inflexible rule as to what shall or shall not be accepted as a cross-mark, and any mark, however crude and imperfect in form, if it is apparent that it was honestly intended as a cross-mark, and for nothing else, must 'be given effect as such; otherwise, electors unaccustomed to the use of pen or pencil might be disfranchised. ’ ’”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Hunt v. Campbell
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.