The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-27
EDUCATIONAL TESTS FOR
VOTERS.

Louisiana proposes to try a new test
for voters. 1t is an experiment to raise
the educational standard of voters, and
as such there can be no objection to Il;
if there is objections to it. it viii be
in the enforcement of it. The proposed
constitutional provision is as follows:
The voter must have been an actual
bona fide resident Of this state at least
two years, and of the parish one year,
and of the ward or precinct in which
he offers to vote six months next pre-
ceding the election; provided that no
persons removal from one ward or pre-
cinct to another ward or precinct in the
same parish shall operate to deprive
him of the right to vote in the precinct
from which he has removed. until he
has acquired such right in the precinct
to which he has removed.
He shall be able to read and write,
and he shall demonstrate his ability to
do so when he applies for registration.
by making, under oath administered by
the registration officer or his deputy,
written application therefor, in the
English language, or in his mother
tongue, which application shall contain
the essential facts necessary to show
that he is entitled to register and vote,
and shall be entirely written, dated
and signed by him in the presence of
the registration officer or his deputy,
without assistance or suggestion from
any person.
If he be not able TO read and write, as
provided in the previous section. then
he shall be entitled to register and vote
If he or his wife. or minor child, or
minor children, or father. or mother, re-
siding in this state, shall, at the time
he offers to register. be the owner of
-ev-4-r !, Of
them in this state at a valuation of not
less than $500 on the assessment roll of
the current year in which he offers to
register, or on the roll of the preced-
ing year. if the roll of the current year
shall not then have been completed and
filed
No person who was entitled to vote
under the statutes of the state of
Louisiana in force on the first day of
January, 1858, or under the statutes
at that time in force in any other state
of the Union, wherein he then resided,
and no legitimate male descendant of
any such person, not less than q years
of age at the date of the adoption of
this constitution, and no male person of
foreign birth. who shall have been nat
uralized prior to the adoption of this
constitution. shall ever be denied the
right to register and vote in this state
by reason of his failure to possess the
educational or property qualifications
prescribed by this constitution.
There is no doubt that the real
object of this is to reduce the number
Of negro voters, and it will probably
have that effect; it will also have the
effect to very considerably reduce the
number of white voters, il it is hon
estly enforced. These written applica-
tions will. more often than not, be very
curious specimens of English, but it is
quite likely that those to whom the ap-
plication is made will not be able to
offer many criticisms in this regard.
This test is one that con be made an
instrument of great injustice if those
who may have the enforcement of it
are so minded. If honestly and intelli-
gently applied it will result in good,
though the property qualification is
rather too large.