Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/429

UNITED STATES V. FIBHBR. 415 �No objection has been taken to the frame of the indictment. But defendant coutends that none bu,t officers of an election are amenable to indictment under the law, and that supervisors appointed pursuant to the act of congress relating to the subject are not such officers; We assent to the first part of the proposition. None but oEBcers of an election are within either the letter or spirit of the law. But are supervisors such officers ? An office, says Cowell, is "a f unction by virtue whereof a man hath some employaient in the affaira of another." Webster defines it to be "a duty, charge, or trust;" while Burrill says "the idea of an office clearly embraces the ideas of tenure, duration, fees or emoluments, rightsand powers, as well as that of duty." A supervisor, we think, fulflls all these conditiQns. He is appointed and. commissioned by authority of law, which fixes the tenure and duration of his office, is entitled to fees, vested . with certain powera and privileges, and charged with defined duties. When in the dis- charge of these duties or in the exercise of these rights, he speaks and aots by authority of law, and is! unquestionably an officer. It seems equally clear that he is an officer of elections. Every require- ment which the law makes of him relates directly or retnotely to elec- tions. He is authorized and required to attend at all times and places fixed for the registration of voters, who, being registered, would be entitled to vote for a representative or delegate in congress, and to challenge any person offering to register ; to attend at all times and places when the names of registered voters may be marked for challenge, and to cause such names registered as they may deem proper to be so marked ; to make, when required, the lists provided for in section 2026, and verify the same ; and upon any occasion and at any time, when in attendance upon the duties prescribed, to per- sonally inspect and serutinize such registry, and for purposes of iden- tification to affix their signatures to each page of the original list, and to each copy thereof , at such times, upon each day when any name may be received, entered, or registered, and in such manner as will, in their judgment, detect and expose the improper or wrongful re- moval therefrom or addition thereto of any name. Section 2016. �They are further authorized and required to attend at all times and places for holding elections of representatives or delegates in con- gress, and for counting the votes cast at such elections ; to challenge any vote offered by any person whose legal qualifications they may doubt ; to be and remain where the ballot-boxes are kept at all times after the poils are open, until evsry vote cast at such time and place has been counted, the canvass of all votes polled wholly completed. ��� �