The Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1869-1872, 1870-05-25
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There il something odioas about . property
1 qualification for . voter. 90 much % that
nearly all the etatss have repealed MI acts
which required Q mathematieian TO determine
the eligibility Of . citizen. An the tenden-
cies Of American politics during the last fifty
years have been toward more liberal ideas In
reference to the qualifications Of voter.
This has in fact been carried 10 the most un-
seemly extreme. ending in the extension Of the
elective franchise even to the ignorant, WORTH
less blacks Of the South, Who arc incapable
Of writing their names and unlikely to ever
possess over ten dollars worth Of property at
any time during their natural lives,
While this was the general tendency Of leg
islation, Nevada took step backward. The
ssraight-out property qualification was unpop-
ular. The ingenuity Of certain politicians.
heirs n expectancy Of all the Offices of the
future State, who were members Of the Con-
stitutional Convention. nevertheless contrived
method to ineraft the principle into the
State Government. They provided for q poll
tax, itself an odious. unjust requirement, but
justified by the California precedent, and then
authorized the Legislature to make the pay
dent to the night of voting. In other words,
1t authorized the Legislature to disfranchise
every citiEen he State who could not jim
gle four dollars on demand. 1t was the old
property qualification in a new form. Asone-
half Of the amount collected goes to the State,
the Legislature, when it subsequently met,
found this revenue a very convenient fund to
10 draw upon. Board bills had to be provided
tor' as well as the general expense Of the
state. With this urgent inducement to make
the fund as large as possible the members Of
the Legislature were readily prevailed upon TO
make the constitutional provision available,
which declared that "the Legislature may, in
IT'S discretion make such payment condition
TO the night Of voting"
One might imagine that one misfortune
that of poverty-was sufficient without agra
waiting that misfortune by adding to it an
other-that OF Acknowledgement There are
hundreds Of citizens Of this State, many of
them old pioneers, whose personal enterprise
and privations laid the foundation Of the
State and all it contains, who have been viz
tually driven from the polls by this most I'M
just enactment. One Of the members of the
convention, when this proviso was under dis
cussion, aptly remarked that as an old miner
he had often seen the time when that -four
dollars was his pork and beans" 1t is the
bacon and beans of many an intelligent, in
dustrious, patriotic citizen of Nevada, who is
as capable as any to assist by his ballot in de-
Gliding the policy and legislation Of the State,
and in determining who shall hold its Offices
1t is true that the State reeds revenue. It
needs this poll tax, but that is no reason why
the tax and the ballot should be yoked toseth-
er. The poll tax is collected in California as
closely as it ever has been in Nevada. II is
not made a condition of voting there; it ought
not to be here. Collect the poll tax as every
tax is collected, ard give every man his place
on the day Of electoul
Doubts have been expressed as to the con-
stituticnality Of the provision. but they seem
to be unfounded. The State undoubtedly had
the power to determine the qualifications of
its voters. The State constitution determined
the measure of that power and invested the
Legislature with authority, in its discretion, to
enforce it. The Legislature has done so.
The Fifteenth Amendment has been quoted
as affecting this power but it clearly does not
1t only affects laws denying the right to vote
ION account Of race, color or previous condi-
ton of servitude." It does not touch this
property qualification.
1t should be the policy of the State, rs in
ancient Greece. to bring every citizen into
public service, and give to the State the bene-
fit Of the talents and patriotism Of every one
of its citizens; not TO discourage them. as
Nevada now does.
The law providing for the payment of the
poll tax should be enforced; bnt the law link
ing the right to vote with that payment should
DO repealed. Legislature adopted it-a
Legislature should be elected TO repeal il.
Every candidate for the next Legislature, who
expects the support CT the people, should have
decided, unqualified opinion to express on
this point
THs Senate was in session oil night on the
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