Albert Eugene Boynton

Candidate Biography:

Born: October 9, 1875 in Oroville, CA
Married: Susie Clark Davis (m. 1901)
Children: Robert Davis, Katherine, Elizabeth, and Jeanette
Died: February 22, 1945

Previous: City Trustee, City of Oroville
1907-1910: Majority Leader, California State Senate
1911-1913: President pro Tempore, California State Senate
1911: Proponent, Proposition 9 (Relating to "appeals in criminal cases")

• LEGISLATION: Boynton (with Assemblyman C. C. Young) was the author of the legislation (1911) that abolished the "party circle" and "party line" ballots and gave Californians the right to vote for the candidates of their choice on uniform secret ballots. Secret ballots had been in use since the 1890s, but it was the Boynton-Young Bill which has set the standard in California for the last century. 
• On March 21, 1911, Boynton used a "Call of the House" to lock in the members of the Senate (from 5:30 pm to 3:00 am) while the Senate Sergeants searched for Senator John J. Cassidy, whose vote was needed to decide a vote on SB 965. At 3:00 am on March 22nd, it was decided to hold the Senate in "continuous session" and reconvene at noon, at which point Cassidy had been located. This lockdown lasted 9.5 hours. From the start of the 'legislative day' on March 21 to the adjournment on March 22, the session lasted just under 24 hours.

Source: California Blue Book (1909), (1911)