§ 55. Usual Provisions of State Constitutions as to the Right of Suffrage. Although the power of a State over the right of suffrage within its jurisdiction is very broad, that of a State legislature is not. All the State constitutions contain provisions which establish the qualifications of voters and restrictions upon the right of suffrage. In the absence of language which grants the power, either expressly or by clear implication, neither the State legislature nor any board of local government can add to the qualifications of voters at the election of a State officer, or member of the legislature, or any other election which affects the State at large.1 The better opinion would seem to be that in such a case they have no power to add to the constitutional qualifications of voters at elections which are purely local, such as the choice of a county-seat; 2 but express power upon the subject of local elections is conferred by a few State constitutions, and less explicit language might be required to grant such authority over them than over general elections. It has been held in Kentucky that the legislature may restrict to tax-payers the right to vote for municipal officers.3 Inasmuch as the Constitution directs that the State legislatures shall prescribe the time, place and manner of the election of representatives in Congress, subject to alteration by Congress, and shall direct the manner of electing presidential electors, it was the opinion of the Supreme Courts of two different States that the provisions of their constitutions which required voters to cast their § 55. 1 Rison v. Farr, 24 Ark., 161: State ex rel. Knowlton v. Williams, 5 Wis., 308; State v. Baker, 38 Wis., 71; Monroe v. Collins, 17 Ohio St., 665; State v. Symonds, 57 Me., 148; State v. Staten, 6 Cold. (Tenn.), 233; Davies v. McKeeby, 5 Nev., 369; Clayton v. Harris, 7 Nev., 64; McCafferty v. Guyer, 59 Pa. St., 109; Huber v. Reilly, 53 Pa. St., 112; Quinn v. State, 35 Ind., 485; Randolph v. Good, 3 W. Va., 551; Green v. Shumway, 39 N. Y., 418; Quinn v. State, 35 Ind., 485; People v. Canaday, 73 N.C., 198; State v. Tuttle, 53 Wis., 45. Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 6th ed., pp. 79, 753; 2 State v. Williams, 5 Wis., 308; 3 Buckner v. Gordon, 81 Ky., 665. See State v. Dillon, 32 Florida, 545; s. c. 14 Southern Rep., 383; Mayor of Town of Valverde v. Shattuck, Colorado, 34 Pac. Rep., 947; contra, People v. Canaday, 73 N. C., 198. 4 Constitution, Article I, Section 4. 5 Ibid., Article II, Section 1. ballots in the localities where they resided, could not prevent the legislatures from passing laws which allowed soldiers in active service to vote in their camps at the seat of war without the State. Special constitutional provisions in several States authorize soldiers thus to vote in time of war.7 The State legislatures cannot, however, grant the right to vote at a Congressional election to any except the electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature, or take from any of such electors the right to vote for members of the national House of Representatives. The power to regulate the manner of an election does not include the power to impose qualifications upon voters different from those contained in a State Constitution.9 The State constitutions usually grant the right to vote to all male citizens of the United States, and residents of the State, who are of sound mind, have not been convicted of certain specified crimes, and are not inmates of poorhouses or similar asylums. Two States Colorado and Wyoming Colorado and Wyoming - allow female suffrage at all elections; 10 Montana upon all questions submitted to taxpayers; Kansas at municipal elections; the last and a number of others at school elections. Where the State constitution is silent upon the subject, the legislature has the power to withhold the right of suffrage from women,11 or to confer it upon them, either wholly or in part; as, for example, in local school elections, which are sometimes held to be impliedly excepted from the constitutional provisions as to the qualifications of voters.12 Where female suffrage was authorized, it was held Opinions of Justices, 45 N. H., 595; Opinions of Judges, 37 Vt., 665. 7 Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, 6th ed., p. 754. Soldiers may so vote in Ohio, ibid., citing Lehman v. McBride, 15 Ohio (N. S.), 573. The statutes authorizing them so to vote were held invalid under the former constitutions of California and Michigan. Day v. Jones, 31 Cal., 261; Twitchell v. Blodgett, 13 Mich., 127. 8 Constitution, Article I, Section 2. 9 Coffin v. Board of Elections Commissioners of Detroit, 97 Mich., 188. of 10 The proposed constitution Utah does the same. See also the Constitution of North Dakota, § 122. 11 Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall., 162. 12 Wheeler v. Brady, 15 Kansas, 26; Brown v. Phillips, 71 Wis., 239; State v. Cones, 15 Neb., 444; Belles v. Bur, 76 Mich., 1; State v. Crosby, 15 Neb., 444; Opinion of the Judges, 115 Mass., 602. But see Coffin v. Board of Election Commissioners, 97 Mich., 188; Matter of Gage, 141 N. Y., 112; Winans v. Williams, 5 Kansas, 227. that the right of women to vote must depend upon the same terms and conditions as applied to men, and that therefore a condition that all male voters should be tax-payers was void because it did not apply to female voters.13 Under the California Constitution, which provided that "no person shall on account of sex be disqualified from entering upon or pursuing any lawful business, vocation or profession," it was held that a board of supervisors could not prohibit the employment of women in drinking cellars and other places where liquors were kept for sale,14 but that a higher license might be charged for drinking-places where women were employed.15 In the absence of a State constitutional prohibition, women may be excluded from admission to the bar.16 Four States Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Mississippi - impose an educational qualification, which usually consists in capacity to read the Constitution of the United States in the English language.17 A few States confine the right of suffrage to tax-payers, with certain exceptions. In Texas, "in all elections to determine expenditures of money or assumption of debt, only those shall be qualified to vote who pay taxes on property in said city or incorporated town." 18 And in Rhode Island, at elections of the Providence city councils and for the expenditure of money in a town or city, only those can vote who have paid a tax assessed upon property therein valued at at least one hundred and thirtyfour dollars.19 There are no other property qualifications for the right of suffrage in the United States. A large number of the States allow aliens to vote for members of Congress and presidential electors as well as State officers, as soon as they have declared their intention to become citizens, although they have not been naturalized. This was a practice of 18 Lyman v. Martin, 2 Utah, 136. 14 Matter of Maguire, 57 Cal., 604. 15 Ex parte Felchin, 96 Cal., 360; s. c. 31 Pac. Rep., 224. 16 Bradwell v. The State, 16 Wall., 130. 17 In Mississippi the direction is that the voter must be able either to read or to understand the part of the Constitution shown or read to him, and thus the election officers are able to allow illiterate whites to vote while disfranchising illiterate blacks. The South Carolina Convention is now considering the propriety of adopting a similar provision. 18 Texas Constitution, Art. VI, Sec. 3. 19 Rhode Island Constitution, Art. VII, Sec. 2. which South Carolina complained in her declaration of independence,20 and which was forbidden by the Confederate Constitution.21 Where the constitution simply required that a person should have a residence in the locality where he offered to vote, without prescribing any period of residence, it was held that a statute which required a residence in such a locality for twenty days previous to the election was void.22 Where the Pennsylvania Constitution provided that a voter must have resided in his election district "ten days immediately preceding the election," it was held that an act was void which attempted to authorize a voter who had changed his residence within ten days of the election to vote where he formerly resided.23 It has been said that persons of unsound mind are impliedly excepted from the class of electors specified in a constitution or statute, although not expressly named.24 Drunkenness is considered as a temporary insanity.25 The crimes, a conviction of which operates as a disfranchisement, are usually all or a specified class of infamous crimes; ordinarily include treason and often duelling and bribery. Most State constitutions contain a provision concerning the residence of voters in substance like that of New York: "For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his presence or absence, while employed in the service of the United States; nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this State, or of the United States, or of the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any almshouse, or other asylum, wholly or partly supported at public expense, or by charity; nor while confined in any public. prison." 26 Under similar provisions it has been held in some States that where the persons therein described showed that they had actually acquired a permanent residence at their official post, or place of 20 Supra, § 36. 21 Supra, § 37. 22 Quinn v. State, 35 Ind., 485. 23 Thompson v. Ewing, 1 Brewster (Pa.), 67, 103. 24 See Clark v. Robinson, 88 Ill., 98; Cushing, Law and Practice of Legislative Assemblies, §§ 24, 27; Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, 6th ed., p. 753. 25 Ibid. 26 N. Y. Constitution, Article II, Section 3. 27 People ex rel. Orman v. Riley, 51 education,28 or asylum,29 they might vote there. The New York courts construe the provision more strictly against the voter. § 56. Constitutionality of Registration Laws. Although a State legislature cannot add to the constitutional qualifications of electors, it may establish such reasonable regulations for the conduct of the elections and for the determination of the right to vote at the same as do not impair the constitutional right of suffrage. It is the better opinion that where the constitution is silent upon the subject, a State legislature has still the power to make a reasonable law compelling the registration of all voters before an election.2 A few State courts, however, have held registration laws unconstitutional unless expressly authorized.3 In consequence, express provisions authorizing registration laws are now usually inserted in the modern State constitutions.* Registration laws, and all other laws providing for the conduct of elections, must not unreasonably restrict the right of qualified Cal., 48; People ex rel. Budd v. Holden, 28 Cal., 123; Wood v. Fitzgerald, 3 Oregon, 568; Darragh v. Bird, 3 Oregon, 229; Hunt v. Richards, 4 Kansas, 549. 28 Putnam v. Johnson, 10 Mass., 488; Opinion of Justices, 5 Met. (Mass.), 587; Sanders v. Getchell, 76 Me., 158; Pedigo v. Grimes, 113 Ind., 148; Berry v. Wilcox, Nebraska, 62 N. W. Rep., 249. 29 Stewart v. Kyser (California), 39 Pac. Rep., 19. 30 Silvey v. Lindsay, 107 N. Y., 55; People v. Cady, 143 N. Y., 100; Re Goodman, 84 Hun., 53; s. c. 146 N. Y., 256. Re Garvey, 84 Hun., 611. § 56. 1 Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 6th ed., pp. 756-760; McCrary on Elections, 3d ed., § 91. 2 Capen v. Foster, 12 Pick. (Mass.), 485; s. c. 23 American Decisions, 632; Davis v. School District, 45 N. H., 398; People v. Kopplekom, 16 Mich., 342; State v. Bond, 38 Mo., 425; Ensworth v. Albin, 46 Mo., 450; State v. Hil mantel, 21 Wis., 566; State v. Baker, 38 Wis., 71; Byler v. Asher, 47 Ill., 101; People v. Hoffman, 116 Ill., 587; Monroe v. Collins, 17 Ohio St., 665; Edmonds v. Banbury, 28 Iowa, 267. See also In re Polling Lists, 13 R. L., 729; State v. Butts, 31 Kan., 537; Hawkins v. Carroll Co., 50 Miss., 735; McMahon v. Mayor, 66 Ga., 217. Patterson v. Barlow, 60 Pa. St., 54; Commonwealth v. McClelland, 83 Ky., 686. Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 6th ed., p. 757, and McCrary on Elections, 3d ed., § 92. An excellent note on this subject in 29 Am. Law Rep., N. S., 872. 3 Dell v. Kennedy, 49 Wis., 555; s. c. 35 Am. Rep., 786; White v. County of Multnomah, 13 Oregon, 317. See Daggett v. Hudson, 43 Ohio St., 548; State v. Corner, 22 Neb., 265; Page v. Allen, 58 Pa. St., 338; Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 6th ed., 757. 4 The Constitutions of Arkansas (Art. III, Sec. 2) and of West Virginia |