Boas

Appellant, the Chief Administrative Officer (hereinafter CAO) of the City and County of San Francisco, has appealed from a judgment awarding respondent, a New York corporation, the manufacturer of an approved punch card computerized voting system 1 denominated “Datavote,” a permanent injunction enjoining and restraining the CAO from interfering with the registrar of voters’ selection of a computer voting system to be used in the city and county. 2 The CAO contends that the function and personnel of the office of the registrar of voters were administered by a director of finance and records as part of the department of finance and records which in turn was expressly placed under the control of the CAO by the city and county charter, 3 and *1019 that therefore he was fully authorized to countermand the selection of Datavote which had been made by the registrar.

Respondent claims that the plain meaning of other sections of the charter, particularly when viewed in the light of the judicial interpretation of similar provisions of an earlier charter, conclusively demonstrates that the registrar, as found by the trial court, had the exclusive authority to select a voting…

The majority opinion, while disclaiming any intention of holding that the registrar has or has not the exclusive power to select a voting system * for San Francisco, necessarily and in my view erroneously holds, contrary to Ashe v. Zemansky (1932) 192 Cal. 83 [ 218 P. 591 ], that the registrar, as successor to the elections board, lacks such power.

I realize that, as Charles Lamb wrote, “all words are no more to be taken in a literal sense at all times than a promise given to a tailor,” but in my view, nothing could be clearer from a perusal of the relevant statutes and their history than that, since the matter is one “pertaining to the conduct of elections” (cf. § 3.201 of the charter), the selection of a system is a matter solely within the registrar’s authority.

Whether fiscal powers possessed by other city officials might prevent implementation of the respondent’s choice is an issue not before us, as the parties themselves have agreed. As appellant candidly concedes, “The instant case only deals with the requisitioning process,” and again, “[the case] involves only the question of who has authority to make a selection of a voting system.”

The majority opinion deems it…

Appellant, the Chief Administrative Officer (hereinafter CAO) of the City and County of San Francisco, has appealed from a judgment awarding respondent, a New York corporation, the manufacturer of an approved punch card computerized voting system [1] denominated "Datavote," a permanent injunction enjoining and restraining the CAO from interfering with the registrar of voters' selection of a computer voting system to be used in the city and county. [2] The CAO contends that the function and personnel of the office of the registrar of voters were administered by a director of finance and records as part of the department of finance and records which in turn was expressly placed under the control of the CAO by the city and county charter, [3] and that therefore he was fully authorized to countermand the selection of Datavote which had been made by the registrar.

Respondent claims that the plain meaning of other sections of the charter, particularly when viewed in the light of the judicial interpretation of similar provisions of an earlier charter, conclusively demonstrates that the registrar, as found by the trial court, had the exclusive authority to select a…