#### STEWART GORDON, Petitioner, v. MITCHELL WALLACE, Respondent, and STEWART GORDON, a Resident, Taxpayer, and Elector of MARKS CREEK TOWNSHIP, PRECINCT No. 2, RICHMOND COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, on Behalf of Himself and All Other Persons Similarly Situated, Petitioner, v. JOHN T. PAGE, JR., Chairman, RICHMOND COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, and JIM HAYES, Member of the RICHMOND COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, Respondents.

(Filed 13 December, 1950.)

Appeal and Error § 31e—

Appeal from the denial of certiorari in proceedings protesting the manner in which a registrar was performing his duties and seeking the removal of members of the county board of elections for alleged failure in their duties in regard to the appointment of the registrar and their action on the protest, will be dismissed as academic when the registration period fixed by law has expired and the dates fixed for holding the elections have passed pending the appeal.

Appeal by petitioner from Sink, J., at 17 July, 1950, Term of Rich-MOND.

“Petition for writ of certiorari to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.”

The record discloses, summarily stated, that on 9 May, 1950, the Mayor (Stewart Gordon) and Board of Commissioners of the Town of Hamlet filed with J. Thomas Page, Jr., Chairman of the Richmond County Board of Elections, a protest as to the manner in which Registrar Wallace of Precinct No. 2, Marks Creek Township, was performing the duties of his office, to the effect that the registrar worked outside the boundary of the precinct, and hence during the week days other than Saturday the registration book was not open and available to persons qualified and desiring to register for the next ensuing primary elections; that a hearing of the protest was held by and before the County Board of Elections; and that thereupon the Board (Chairman Page and J. W. Hayes, a member, voting, and the Republican member not voting) found the evidence insufficient to warrant it taking further action, and so ordered. Petitioner, as protestant, appealed to the State Board of Elections.

*86Tbe record also shows that thereafter Steward Gordon, as an elector of Precinct No. 2 of Marks Creek Township, Eichmond County, in behalf of himself and other persons similarly situated, filed a petition with the State Board of Elections for the removal of Chairman Page and member Hayes, of the County Board of Elections, for failure in their duties as such in respect to (1) the appointment of Eegistrar Wallace, and (2) their action on the protest as above set forth.

The State Board of Elections, after hearing in Ealeigh, N. C., all parties being present, entered an order dismissing the appeal in the protest to the Eegistrar Wallace ease, and the petition for removal of Chairman and members of the County Board of Elections, “for insufficiency of the evidence.”

And the record shows: “That to said order, petitioner excepted.”

Petitioner petitions for certiorari. Eespondents demur thereto on fourteen stated grounds. The court sustained the demurrer. Petitioner excepts thereto and appeals to the Supreme Court and assigns error.

G. S. Steele for plaintiff appellant.

Z. V. Morgan for defendant appellees.

Per Curiam.

The registration period fixed by law for the primary elections of 1950 having expired, and the dates fixed by law for holding of such primary elections having passed, the questions petitioner seeks to present on this appeal are academic. For that reason the appeal is dismissed on authority of Saunders v. Bulla, 232 N.C. 578, and cases there cited.

Appeal dismissed.