The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-08-10
WHO ARE
VOTERS?
Attorney General DoIe's
Opinion.
QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED
Questions Propounded by Registrar
Of Elections Wray Taylor
Answered.

Attorney General Dole yesterday sent to
Wray Taylor, registrar of elections, the
following answer to a number of ques-
tichs as to the qualifications necessary to
enable an individual to vote at the com
ing election:
Sir: Your favor of August 9Th is at
hand, enclosing list of questions pro-
IoLnded by the chairman of the Board
of Registration for the Islands of Maui
Molokai and Lanai, relative to the COM
ing registration of voters, and / have the
honor to submit the following opinion:
@ The Law states that registration of
vol re shall take pace between the last
day Of August and the 10Th day of Octo-
Der in the year 1900. Are both days in
cluded?
A. L think that both days are exclud-
ed.
| Q. II a man was born in the United
States but came to his majority i'm the
Hawaiian Islands, what qualifications
would be necessary to make him voter?
Does birth in the United States alone
make a man a voter, age and educational
qualifications understood?
| A. Article XIV, Section l of the
amendments to the Constitution of the
United States provides that. ''All persons
born or naturalized in the United States
aud subject to the Jurisdiction thereof
are citizens of the United States and of
the State in which they reside. Even be-
fore the passage of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States it was held in the case of
Lynch VS.. Clark that a person born in
thu United States of alien parents. tenn
lporarily residing there, but who left the
United States with her parents before she
was a year old, was a citizen of the Unit.
ed States although her parents never re-
turned. This is the leading case on the
! ST bject In the United States and there
have been many cases in line with it,
Irrespective of the Fourteenth Amend
ment. the settled principle of English and
Am erican law seems to be that citizen
lship arises from birth in country the
person SO born being within its territorial
limits and subject to it's jurisdiction; tina!
ts, in it's power and amenable to its laws
J II man was born in the United States
subject to the jurisdiction of the United
States, and has not renowned his allegi
ai,ce or been naturalzed elsewhere, he is
! citizen of the United States.
To be voter here he must have the
qualifications prescribed by Section 60 Of
the Organic Law.
Q. If a man was citizen of the United
! Sta ties but afterwards became citizen OF
some other country than the Hawaiian
Islands, he should be regarded as an alien
should he not?
( Il. If he has renowned his allegiance
I to the United States and has been natur
allied in some other country than the
2 United States or the Hawaiian Islands
he is an alien, ana can become a either
Z and voter only by being naturalizet
: again.
Q. Has the Board of Registration an,
2 power to administer oaths except the on,
under which man gives testimony t,
: the Board? Or has the Board power T.
3 administer the cath Of allegiance to tn
3 United States?
3 Boards of Registration are create
= for the purpose of examining applicant
Z for registration as voters and determin
3 ing their elig: bility."
3 Section %, App. to Civil Laws of 1897.
9 The power to confer citizenship by nat
= III alization is confined to the Courts
& spe Gifted in Section 2165 of the Revise
z Statutes of the United States, and tn
g Be ards have no authority to administe
Z oaths for that purpose.
f. P. DOLE,
3 Attorney General.