Ex parte Brown

The petitioner is registrar of voters of the city and county of San Francisco. His duties as such are in all material respects the same as those imposed by law upon county clerks in the other counties of the state. (Act of March 18, 1878; Stats. 1878, p. 299, sec. 4; Pol. Code, new sec. 1216, added by act of March 20, 1891; Stats. 1891, p. 165, sec. 32.) It appears from his petition and the return to the writ issued herein that the Hon. C. W. Slack, one of the judges of the superior court of San Francisco, acting in the capacity of a committing magistrate, caused the arrest of one Naphtaly upon a charge of felony, alleged to have been committed *85 by him as inspector of one of the election precincts of said city and county at the recent general election. While conducting the examination of said charge in his capacity of committing magistrate, said judge made and caused to be duly served upon the petitioner an order requiring him to produce and open the sealed package of ballots returned from the precinct at which said ETaphtaly acted as such inspector. The petitioner refused to produce the package of ballots for the purpose of opening them, and for such refusal was adjudged…