Coe

The Registrar of Voters of Alameda County (hereinafter “Registrar”) appeals from a judgment granting plaintiffs’ petition for a writ of mandate requiring him to accept plaintiffs’ declarations of candidacy for the Alameda County Central Committee with a loyalty oath purged therefrom.

The record shows that plaintiffs Coe and others were applicants for candidacy to the office of Alameda County Central Committee, Peace and Freedom Party, in the June 1972 primary election. Plaintiffs tendered declarations of candidacy, as required by law, to the Registrar, defendant Rene C. Davidson. The Registrar refused to accept plaintiffs’ declarations of candidacy because he claimed that they were not substantially in the form prescribed by section 6491 of the Elections Code, in that the following oath had been stricken from the declaration: “I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am not engaged in one way or another in any attempt to overthrow the government by force or violence, and that I am not knowingly a member of any organization engaged in such an attempt.”

Plaintiffs sought a writ of mandate in the superior court to compel the Registrar to accept their declarations of candidacy…