The Constitution says that Congressmen shall be chosen by the people of the several States and that athe electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legis lature* (Art. 1, § 2, § 1). The States do not define who shall vote for Congressmen but merely prescribe the qualifications of those who vote for the popular branch of their own legis latures and the Constitution says that the same persons vote for Congressmen. Hence Con gressional electors do not owe their right to vote to the State law in any sense which makes the exercise of the right exclusively dependent on the law of the State. Since the right to vote is not natural, the State, unless exprtssly prohibited by its constitution, may confer the nght only on those who pay taxes for the sup port of the government; and even though the constitution fix the qualifications of voters at general elections, yet the legislature, in grant ing municipal charters and providing for special local elections, may make the payment of taxes a condition precedent to the right to vote at such elections. If United States citizenship be a requisite qualification of an elector, a for feiture of that citizenship will disqualify him, provided a regular legal trial and conviction be shown. Many of the State constitutions pro vide that persons convicted of infamous crimes or crimes of a high degree lose the privilege of voting and it has been held also that a convic tion of crime of a disqualifying nature in a Federal court has the effect to exclude the per son convicted from office and suffrage the same as if he had been convicted in a State court. A general absolute pardon of the executive re stores the convicted person to the full enjoy ment of his civil rights, including the right to vote, and a Presidential pardon likewise re stores the right to those convicted in Federal courts, but while a Presidential pardon restores the cnminal to the rights. and privileges of a citizen of the United States, it does not, without the assent of the State, restore him to the ex ercise of that right if the sovereign power of the State has excluded him from the right of suffrage. Unless pardoned bv the executive, ex-convicts continue to be disfranchised. In this connection the existence of a double citizenship in the United States should be men tioned. One authority says: "There is a clear distinction between national citizenship and State citizenship. . . . A person who is a citizen of the United States and a resident of a particular State is necessanly a citizen of that State. On the other hand a person may be a citizen of the United States and not • citizen of any particular State. This is the condition of chimney' residing in the District of Columbia. and in the territories of the United States, or who have taken up a residence abroad. So a person may be a citizen of a particular State and not a citizen of the United States, as an alien who has declared his intention to become a citizen and who is by local law entitled to vote in the State of his residence and there to exercise all other local functions of local citirenship, such as holding office, the right to poor relief, etc., but who is not a citizen of the United States. Nothing which a State can do will invest a foreigner with the rights and privileges of a eitisen of the United States." rCorpus Juni.' Vol. XI. P 777).
Colonial Electoral Qualifications.— The principal qualification required of the early colonial electors was that they should be ((free men,* a term of various interpretations even in the colonies themselves, but held generally to mean persons of recognized responsibility. In Virginia and North Carolina, Indians and negroes were not allowed to vote. In South Carolina and Georgia the privilege was re stricted to white men, but the law was not rigidly enforced, for free negroes were re corded as voting in South Carolina in 1701. In Pennsylvania only natural-born subjects of England could vote; in Massachusetts, after 1664, only Englishmen could vote.. In South Carolina, however, the French Huguenots had equal franchise with the English ((freemen.* In general, the voter was re9uired to be of good moral character and obedient to the laws; immoral behavior might result either in tem porary or permanent disfranchisement. In Ply mouth voters were to be °orthodox in the fundamentals of religion.* Massachusetts in 1631 demanded also, ato the end that the body of the freemen may be preserved of honest and good men," that Thenceforth no man shall be admitted to the freedom of the com monwealth but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of this juris diction." This provision, however, lasted only until 1664 or 1665. Massachusetts excluded Quakers, but they were permitted to vote in Rhode Island and Connecticut, which colonies did not specify church membership; while in the other colonies their reluctance to take oaths usually operated to debar them from the fran chise. In most of the colonies Roman Cath
olics were not allowed to vote, New Haven and, for a time, Maryland being notable ex ceptions. New York excluded Catholics in 1701 and Jews in 1737. Virginia was the only colony specifically debarring women from the franchise, though they were effectually ex cluded in South Carolina, Georgia and Dela ware; but the others incidentally excluded them by according the vote only to afreemen,* or by confining the suffrage to males of at least 2/ years of age. However, the laws often read (freeholders,* rather than ((freemen,* and it is impossible to tell how far under this the women voted, though at least a few voted in New Jersey. In Virginia a property qualification was required: a voter must be a °housekeeper,* either as owner or tenant. Massachusetts, Dela ware and Maryland required an estate of at least $200; after 1699 New York required that voters for members of the lower branch of the legislature be ((freeholders* of an estate valued at not less than i40, but in Albany and New York city all afreemen*.were allowed to vote. Rhode Island stipulated that voters must pos sess ((competent estates,* which, later, were de fined as the possession of $500, or a rental list of at least $10 (aftertvard $50, and still later, $100) per annum. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia required the possession of 50 acres of land, of which a certain (vary ing) portion should be under cultivation. Vir ginia required the possession of 100 acres of land if untenanted, and 25 acres if a residence not less than 12 feet square were built upon the land and occupied. The same size of house on a small lot in a town fulfilled the colony's requirement in this respect. At Wilmington, only those could vote who had occupied brick houses at least 16 feet wide and 20 feet long, and for at least three months preceding the election. The residence qualification in other colonies varied from six months in Georgia to two years in Pennsylvania and Delaware. See also UNITED STATES — SUFFRAGE IN THE.
Broadening of the Suffrage.— When the Constitution was framed in 1787 suffrage quali fications were so divergent in the various States that no attempt was made to impose restric tions and the States were allowed to modify their electoral qualifications as they deemed wise, the only restriction being that contained in Article I, § 2, ¶ 1 which provides that Con gressmen shall be elected by people in the vari ous States twho have the qualifications requi site for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature? At that time this distinction was of great importance since all the States required the payment of taxes or ownership of real or personal property varying in value from $33 to $200. Moreover, North Carolina distinguished between electors for members of her legislature; to vote for a mem ber of the lower house the elector need only to have paid taxes, but to vote for a member of the senate he must own a freehold of 50 acres. New York required that all voters for members of the assembly own a freehold valued at 120 or pay rent of 40s. and that taxes must have been paid to the State during the previous year; while the person who voted for senator must be possessed of an unencumbered free hold valued at not less than £100. Gradually these requirements were eliminated, the prop erty test being abolished by Maryland in 1801 and 1809, New York and Massachusetts in 1821, Tennessee in 1834, New Jersey in 1844, Connecticut in 1845, Virginia in 1850, South Carolina in 1865, North Carolina in 1854 and 1868; and the tax-paying test being abolished by New York in 1826, Louisiana in 1845, Ohio in 1851 and Virginia and Mississippi in 1882. Nevertheless, many States continued to insist upon the poll tax and Rhode Island still has a law that prohibits a person who has not paid during the previous year a tax upon his prop erty in the State valued at $134 at least from voting for city councilmen or upon any meas ure of municipal finance. Some of the other States now have tax or property tests as will appear in the subjoined table. The next great extension of the suffrage was an outcome of the Civil War, when during the Reconstruction period (see UNITED STATES—RECONSTRUCTION IN THE) the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend ments to the Constitution were adopted, for bidding the States to discriminate against the negro. Finally women have won voting privi leges on an equality with men — in Wyoming (1869), Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), Idaho (1896), Washington (1910), California(1911), Kansas (1912), Arizona (1912), Oregon (1912), Alaska (1913), Montana (1914), Ne vada (1914), New York (1917, effective 1918). In other States they possess a restricted suffrage, for details of which see WOMAN SUFFRAGE. See also BALLOT; VOTE, VOTERS,