Offenses committed in violation of the election laws affect society in the gravest manner.

An offense against the freedom and purity of elections is a crime against the government. It strikes at the foundations of republican institutions. The tendency of such violations is to prevent the expression of the will of the people in the choice of public officers, and to weaken the confidence of the public in elections. When this confidence is destroyed the end of popular government is near at hand.1

Although the courts are not in accord as to whether the common law reaches violations of election laws, yet the better doctrine seems to be that it is an offense at common law to undertake to defeat the will of the people at the ballot box. The ingenuity of politicians is such that offenses against the purity of elections are constantly liable to occur which are not specifically covered by statute. Therefore the idea that the common law is not in force to meet such violations should be looked upon by the courts with disfavor.

It is an offense at common law to bribe or attempt to bribe an elector by giving him money to influence him in casting his ballot at any public election.2

1 Com. vs. McHale, 97 Pa. St., 397. 2 State vs. Jackson, 73 Me., 91;

Hughes' Cr. Law, Sec. 2307.

It is not essential, however, to a conviction that the money given should actually influence the voter in casting his vote.3

So it is an offense at common law to destroy a ballot box or the ballots which it contains, at any election for public officers.4 And so is illegal voting an offense against the common law, and hence a person who casts more than one ballot at an election for district school officers may be punished for such violation under the common law.5