The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-06
PAY POLL TAX BEFORE MAY.


1t is not too soon to begin an agitation
to induce all voters to pay their poll tax
before the first Monday in May. Under
the new suffrage laws, no man can vote
in the November election unless he has
paid his State and county poll tax before
the first of May. Not few men lost
their right to vote in city, temperance,
and other elections in 1903 because they
had not paid their poll tax prior to the
first Monday in May. They had paid it
later than May, but lost their vote be-
cause they had paid it too late.
The law requiring the payment before
the first Monday in May was enacted for
a good purpose, to-wit: to discourage the
payment of this tax by candidates and
party managers. The objection to the old
laws requiring the payment of poll tax
as prerequisite for voting was that it
invited the expenditure of a large corrup-
ton fund. There were too many men who
waited for candidates or party commit
tees to pay their poll tax. Under the old
laws in other States, the tax might be
paid up to the very day of the election,
and it became such burden upon can
didate and so dangerous way of whole
sale bribery that the laws requiring pre-
payment were abolished in some States.
When the North Carolina Legislature
came to incorporate that provision, they
required payment before the first Mon
day in May to prevent the demand on
candidates to pay it and to leave no in
ducement for candidates to buy votes by
paying poll tax. No conventions are held
as early as May. Nobody can positively
tell who will be the candidates, and there
is little inducement therefore for anybody
to advance money to pay poll tax for
voter
There is one defect in the existing law
which should be remedied. Under the
present law a sheriff or tax collector,
poll tax before or after May, often waits
until the summer or fall, and then forces
the payment of poll tax after it is too late
for the man paying it to vote. This ought
not to be allowed. Every officer charged
with the duty of collecting tax ought to
be required to force collections before
the first Monday in May. 1t is as easy to
do this before May as afterwards. If done
before, the man retains the right to vote,
if afterwards he loses it. In the absence
of any law, We venture to suggest to all
sheriffs and tax collectors that they exert
themselves, to collect all poll tax before
the first Monday in May-not only by re-
questing it's payment, but by putting in
operation all machinery, such as garni-
sheeing wages and the like, that they are
accustomed to employ later in the year. 1t
is just as well to force payment in April,
when the person paying will save his vote,
as to wait until August, when he will
have to pay and still lose his vote. When
November comes the voter, who has neg
lected to pay of his own volition, will
thank the tax collector much more for
using the process of the law in April
than in November.
The trainers of the constitution did not
wish any white man to lose his vote, but
unless poll tax collections are pressed by
officers before May, many accustomed to
pay later, will postpone the payment I'M
til they disfranchise themselves, con-
dition that would be most deplorable 1t
can be largely prevented if sheriffs and
tax collectors will follow the above sug
gestion.
But voters should not wait for sheriffs
or tax collectors to call upon them to pay
their poll tax. They ought to protect
their right of suffrage by paying their
poll tax early, keeping their receipts and
not leaving the preservation of their right
to vote to an officer of the law. Let
every good citizen interest himself in the
matter to the end that the poll tax pro-
vision shall not operate to disfranchise
anv pood man