The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-07-07

The Poll Tax and Elections.
New Orleans Picayune.
On Saturday last Mr.. Jus tice
Blanchard, of the Supreme Court of
louisiana, rendered a very impor-
tant decision on the constitutional
requirement making the payment of
a poll tax q prerequisite for the ex-
ercise of the right of suffrage. The
law, which is contained in article
1913 of the Constitution of 1898,
provides as follows:
No person less than 60 years of age shall
be permitted to vote at any election in the
State who shall not. in addition to the quail
6cations above prescribed, have paid, On or
before the 3Ist day of December Of each
year for the two years preceding the year in
which he offers to vote, poll tax of 81 per
public schools of the parish in which such
tax shall he collected; which tax is hereby
imposed on every male resident of this State
betw=en the ages of FL and 60 years. Poll
property, and no process shall issue to en-
force the collection of the same except
against assessed property.
The question came up as the re-
suit of an electionn for mayor OF
the town of Clinton, East Feliciana
parish. There were two contest
ants before the voters for the Office.
One candidate receiving majority
of the votes was refused possession
of the mayorality by the other can
didate, who was the incumbent a,
the time Of the election, on the
ground that the constitutional re.
quirement in regard to the paymen,
of the poll tax had not been com.
piled with.
| Justice Blanchard, after recitins
the details of the case and analyz
ing the constitutional late, hello
that the poll tax required in thu
premises was levied by the consti
tuition of 1899, but it did not I've
come factor in elections until af
ter the State election in April, 1900
Since, then, the tax must have beer
paid for two years previous to thu
election in which the tax receipts
are to be exhibited, it follows that
beginning in 1900, two years mus
elapse before the tax receipts ar
required to be shown, and, there
fore, the requirement dues not COM
into force until after the 3Ist o
December, 1902. Said the court
This article 1873, then. went into opera
ton only on the day following the genera
State election of the present year, 1900.
This being so, it follows that the first po
tax it imposes, the prepayment of which i:
prescribed as prerequisite to voting at a
election, is that for the year 1900.
r In order, then, to vote at any electio
held after Dec. 81. 1901, the poll tax re
ceipts for 1900 and 1901, paid on or befor
. Dec. 81. respectively of those years. mus
1t follows, therefore, that the productio
of the tax receipts for the payment of pc
taxes, as prerequisite to the exercise of tn
! right to vote, cannot he demanded unit
+ 1907.
At any election held after the beginnin
] of the year 1907, and during that year, tn
+ voter can and must produce his poll tax re
ceipts of 1900 and 1901, showing the pa,
. ment of the constitutional poll tax or b,
fore the 3Ist of December of the years, re-
pectively, because the tax will then hav
= been levied for two years preceding the cleo
ton. But he cannot now produce such re
ceipts, for the reason that no levy of tn
I constitutional poll tax has yet matured.
n 1t is this purely constitutional poll ia!
: levied by the Constitution itself, which mu
be paid as prerequisite to voting, and n
q the poll tax of 1893 and 1899, levied
legislation enacted under the Constitution
s 1879.
The poll tax of those years is held not
> be the poll tax with which article 1913 of IL
y Constitution of 1898 deals.
s This decision, which seems er
n tirely lucid, plain and in accordanc