“2-602. (6396) PAR. II. WHO SHALL BE AN ELECTOR ENTITLED TO REGISTER AND VOTE.-Every male citizen of this State who is a citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old or upwards, not laboring under any of the disabilities named in this Article, and possessing the qualifications provided by it, shall be an elector and entitled to register and vote at any election by the people: Provided, That no soldier, sailor, or marine in the military or naval services of the United States shall acquire the rights of an elector by reason of being stationed on duty in this State. [Acts 1908, pp. 27, 28, ratified October 7th, 1908.]

"[EDITORIAL NOTE.-This section was modified by Const. U. S., Amend. XIX See § 1-827 and 152/283 (109 S. E. 6€6).]

"2-603. (6397) PAR. III. WHO ENTITLED TO REGISTER AND VOTE.-To entitle a person to register and vote at any election by the people, he shall have resided in the State one year next preceding the election, and in the county in which he offers to vote six months next preceding the election, and shall have paid all poll taxes that he may have had an opportunity of paying agreeably to law. Such payment must have been made at least six months prior to the election at which he offers to vote, except when such elections are held within six months from the expiration of the time fixed by law for the payment of such taxes. [Acts 1908, pp. 27, 28, ratified Oct. 7, 1908; Acts 1931, p. 102, ratified November 8, 1932.] "[EDITORIAL NOTE.--By the amendment of 1932 the provision, ‘all poll taxes that he may have had an opportunity of paying agreeably to law,' was inserted in lieu of the provision, ‘all taxes which may have been required of him since the adoption of the Constitution of Georgia of 1877, that he may have had an opportunity of paying agreeably to law.' See note following § 2-601.]

"2-604. (6398) PAR. IV. QUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS.-Every male citizen of this State shall be entitled to register as an elector, and to vote in all elections in said State, who is not disqualified under the provisions of Section II of Article II of this Constitution, and who possesses the qualifications prescribed in Paragraphs II and III of this Section or who will possess them at the date of the election occurring next after his registration, and who in addition thereto comes within either of the classes provided for in the five following subdivisions of this paragraph.

"1. All persons who have honorably served in the land or naval forces of the United States in the Revolutionary War, or in the War of 1812, or in the War with Mexico, or in any War with the Indians, or in the War between the States, or in the War with Spain, or who honorably served in the land or naval forces of the Confederate States, or of the State of Georgia in the War between the States; or,

"2. All persons lawfully descended from those embraced in the classes enumerated in the subdivision next above; or

"3. All persons who are of good character and understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under a republican form of government; or

"4. All persons who can correctly read in the English language any paragraph of the Constitution of the United States or of this State and correctly write the same in the English language when read to them by any one of the registrars, and all persons who solely because of physical disability are unable to comply with the above requirements, but who can understand and give a reasonable interpretation of any paragraph of the Constitution of the United States or of this State that may be read to them by any one of the registrars; or

"5. Any person who is the owner in good faith in his own right of at least forty acres of land situated in this State, upon which he resides, or is the owner in good faith in his own right of property situated in this State and assessed for taxation at the value of $500. [Acts 1908, pp. 27, 28, ratified October 7th, 1908.]

"VIRGINIA

"ARTICLE II-ELECTIVE FRANCHISE AND QUALIFICATION FOR OFFICE

"§ 18. QUALIFICATION OF VOTERS.-Every citizen of the United States, twentyone years of age, who has been a resident of the State one year, of the county, city, or town six months, and of the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days next preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has been registered, and has paid his State poll taxes, as hereinafter required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the general assembly and all officers elective by the people; but removal from one precinct to another, in the same county, city, or town shall not deprive any person of his right to vote in the precinct from which he has moved until the expiration of thirty days after such removal.

"The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex."

Senator HOLLAND. Thank you, sir.

The poir of this portion of my presentation is to make it completely clear that those who submitted the 17th amendment containing the exact language used in section 2 of article I of the original Constitution with reference to qualifications of electors did it against a background which they knew perfectly well and which embraced, among other things, the requirement in many States of that period and in many of those States by constitutional provision, that among the qualifications of electors for the naming of members of the most numerous branch of the State legislature was the payment of poll tax, and that in the constitutions themselves these States had shown clearly what their understanding of the word "qualification" was by having named the poll-tax-payment requirement as one of the qualifications which must be possessed by an elector.

Mr. Chairman, I shall not belabor that point here now, but in numerous of those constitutions there is used not once but sometimes many times, in one constitution, the words "qualification," "qualifications," or "qualified," or "qualify" in connection with the poll tax to show quite clearly that it was understood at that time, and it was accepted practice to use the word "qualification" in connection with the poll-tax payment, among other requirements.

MORAL QUESTION

Mr. Chairman, I want to go a little further with reference to this question of the adoption of the 17th amendment because I think that involved here there is an important moral question, as well as a question of law. There is a question of sound morals involved because not only was this 17th amendment submitted by men who knew that the term "qualifications" in their State constitutions embraced poll tax, not only was it submitted after extensive arguments had been made on the floor interpreting this amendment as leaving entirely to the States the matter of prescribing the qualifications of electors, but the very adoption of the amendment would have been impossible except for the concurrence of at least 4 of the 5 Southern States, all of them having poll-tax requirements, which were among the States that approved the 17th amendment.

Those five Southern States, Mr. Chairman, that took action to ratify the 17th amendment were the States of North Carolina, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. I call specific attention to the fact that while there was 1 State over the number required to ratify the amendment, namely 37, the ratification actually required that at least 4 of these Southern States should have voted to ratify the 17th amendment because without their votes it could not have been ratified, and that these 4 States that did vote to ratify and who through their vote made possible the ratification had in their own constitutions provisions requiring the payment of poll tax as a qualification for voting in the election of the most numerous branch of their State legislatures.

Mr. Chairman, I cannot believe that those who propose to handle this subject through statute have gone far enough to realize that the fact which I have just stated is true, namely, that 5 Southern States, which then had the constitutional poll-tax requirement, and understanding that the amendment continued their right to use that require

ment, acted to ratify the amendment, and that without the ratification of 4 of them the amendment could not have been adopted. It is true that since that time three of those States, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Tennessee, have eliminated the poll tax.

The basic fact remains that without the concurrence of those States, relying as they had every right to, upon the argument stated time and time again in the debate that the rights of the States to fix the qualification for electors would not be impaired by the adoption of this amendment, the amendment could not have been adopted.

Mr. Chairman, in this connection there is one more thing I want to mention which is, strange to say, that at the time of the submission of the 17th amendment and its adoption, one of the States outside the South had in its constitution a provision, which I shall state for the record and which limited the participation in its elections by imposing a county-tax payment as a prerequisite qualification to participation.

The tax requirement in article VIII of the constitution of Pennsylvania, repealed in 1933, Mr. Chairman, read as follows:

SECTION 1. SUFFRAGE and ELECTIONS.-Qualifications of Electors

I will read subsection 4. This comes, you see, under the general head "Qualifications of Electors":

If 22 years of age and upward, he shall have paid within 2 years a State or county tax, which shall have been assessed at least 2 months and paid at least 1 month before the election.

(Provisions of the constitution of Pennsylvania follow :)

PENNSYLVANIA

ARTICLE VIII-SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS

SECTION 1. QUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS.-Every male citizen twenty-one years of age, possessing the following qualifications, shall be entitled to vote at all elections, subject however to such laws requiring and regulating the registration of electors as the General Assembly may enact:

1. He shall have been a citizen of the United States at least one month.

2. He shall have resided in the State one year (or, having previously been a qualified elector or native-born citizen of the State, he shall have removed therefrom and returned, then six months), immediately preceding the election.

3. He shall have resided in the election district where he shall offer to vote at least two months immediately preceding the election.

4. If twenty-two years of age and upwards, he shall have paid within two years a State or county tax, which shall have been assessed at least two months and paid at least one month before the election (amendment of November 5, 1901).

So, Mr. Chairman, I think it must be crystal clear that the South doesn't have any peculiar attitude with reference to the interpretation of these words or their meaning, nor has the South made any peculiar use of the requirement of the payment of the poll tax or much more stringent requirements having to do with the payment of property taxes and with property ownership as a qualification for voting. It may be that we are a little slower in getting rid of some of these requirements than has been the case elsewhere and that may be regrettable-from my own point of view it is regrettable, Mr. Chairman-but there are, of course, in each State situations best known to the people of that State which have certainly been of sufficient validity to bring about a condition throughout the years from 1787 to now wherein no two States have had exactly the same method of dealing

with this vital question, this vital democratic principle of what shall be the qualifications of electors to participate in making decisions on local and State matters.

(Off the record.)

Senator LANGER. What about educational tests; have any States still got those?

Senator HOLLAND. Yes; some States still have educational tests, and some of them have educational tests coupled with property-owning or taxpaying tests; in other words, if they can't stand the educational test, they are still permitted to vote if they own property or pay

taxes.

Senator KEFAUVER. Do you cover that in your statement, Senator Holland?

Senator HOLLAND. That has been included in part.

Senator KEFAUVER. These educational requirements are a matter of great interest. Would you summarize at this point the provisions of the various States, and what effect this amendment, if any, would have upon that part of the controversy!

Senator HOLLAND. Mr. Chairman, I wish I were able to reply. I am not, because I do not recall all of the provisions of the various States with reference to education. If you wish me to do so, I will have the Library of Congress prepare a monograph on that to be attached to my statement and append it in the record.

I do remember the matters that I have just mentioned, that the educational tests in at least two States are still coupled with taxpaying or property-ownership qualifications, and there are educational requirements in various other States which would not be affected at all by this proposed amendment.

Senator KEFAUVER. Do you think that would be of interest, Senators Langer and Dirksen?

Senator DIRKSEN. I do.

Senator LANGER. I think it would be well to have that attached. Senator HOLLAND. I will be very glad to do so. I am sorry I didn't realize ahead of time.

Senator KEFAUVER. It does not directly affect it, but it is of interest, so let's get that as soon as possible and have it printed in the appendix. Senator HOLLAND. I think there is already a brief prepared on it, because they were able to supply us with information on it immediately. Senator LANGER. I think it is in the testimony of the last hearing. Senator HOLLAND. We will supply that.

(This information was subsequently submitted and may be found within the appendix.)

Senator HOLLAND. I think it would be a tragedy of the first magnitude if, because of the fervency of their zeal, a majority of the Members of the two Houses should take the law into their own hands and do violence to what seems to me to be so clearly an established principle of the law by attempting to invalidate the poll-tax requirement by the mere passage of a Federal statute.

I have no feeling whatever against anyone who has a different conviction on this subject from what I have, but I do not believe that anyone can read the record carefully and analyze what has happened in the past on this subject matter and come to any other conclusion than that the Federal Government cannot overcall the actions of the States with reference to the qualification of their electors other than

by the adoption of a constitutional amendment narrowly addressing itself to that field alone, because, of course, I do not believe that a constitutional amendment could be more general in its application, as, for instance, in taking over its election machinery entirely, and stand any chance either of submission or adoption.

But I think on such matters as the registration of voters, the time, place, manner, period of residence required in the State, period of residence required in the county if the voter has moved from one county to another, the requirement for absentee voting, the age of the elector, and many, many other details which will occur to the chairman and the members of the committee-I do not believe that the States will relinquish the control of those matters. And my own conviction is that they should not do so, because those matters pertain so properly to the life and the people of the State that is affected, that I think it is sounder government to leave that there.

But this amendment, which will give to all qualified electors otherwise the benefit of protection against the mere requirement of a poll tax as a prerequisite for voting for electors who will select the President or Vice President, or voting for their Senators or House Members, along with other people similarly situated who are voting for their Senators and House Members in all of the States of the Union, I think it is salutory to submit it, and I believe it would be quickly adopted.

GOOD PUBLIC POLICY

Notwithstanding the fact that all cosponsors of this proposed amendment feel that the importance of the poll-tax question has been maximized far beyond its actual effect, it is our feeling that the problem has been so widely discussed and has been so generally regarded as the imposition of an undemocratic handicap on minority groups in our Nation that it would be good public policy and in the interest of sounder democratic government to speedily move, through this proposed amendment, to bring a complete end to the imposition of the poll-tax requirement as a condition of participation in Federal élections.

The proposed amendment would have no effect whatever upon the election of officials at the State or local level, but would leave this subject, as heretofore, to the discretion and jurisdiction of the several States.

Mr. Chairman, I ask permission to insert at this point in my remarks a brief prepared by Norman J. Small, American Law Division, Library of Congress, covering the New England States, because I think the committee will find these facts interesting and they illustrate so clearly the type of local control which the cosponsors of this resolution feel should be allowed to continue.

Senator KEFAUVER. Without objection, this will be included and printed at this place in the record.

(The document referred to, entitled "Poll Taxes As Levied in New England States," is as follows:)

POLL TAXES AS LEVIED IN NEW ENGLAND STATES

MAINE

Upon whom levied.-Males, whether citizens or aliens who are inhabitants of the State who are above the age of 21 years (Rev. Stat. (Supp. 1955) ch. 91A