The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-28

| ing of elections, day OF Challenge as
to the right of registered voters was
set aside for the purpose of testing
their qualifications.
/ He quoted Smith VS.. Wilmington,
| in which it was held that where a
person eligible to become a qualified
voter has been duly registered as
such, he is entitled to vote until he
loses such right.
The action of the Board of Alder
men, he declared, was simply an at
tempt to do away with the plainly eX-
pressed intention of the Legislature.
| The statute must be given a liberal
construction; if the intent had been
otherwise, there would have had to be
| inserted qualified registered voters in
stead of merely registered voters reg
istered at the last preceding election.
Mr.. Battle for Aldermen.
Mr.. Battle began by saying that the
case was one of the greatest interest
| to the citizens of Wake county and
| to the State of North Carolina. The
| Watts law had created much interest
| and discussion in the State at the
time it's passage was proposed and it
was to be presumed that those who
were responsible for it had been care
full in the terms they made it adopt.
If it was true he said, that one-third
of the registered voters. as Tint term
is construed by the petitioners, shall
set in motion the machinery of an
election which the law declares is
undesirable, then the statute is an
absolute absurdity, when it permits
sucn an election to be called by men
who can have no power to affect the
result one way or the other by their
ballots.
According to Blackstone, when the
words of statute are ambiguous, re-
sort must be had to the spirit and
effect and consequences of the law.
Here it is contended that men who
have no interest in the election as
far as power to affect the result is con-
cerned, not half as much interest as
the woman and children of Wake
county, can call an election which is
against the policy of the law and
which would be productive of feeling
and excitement which would be great
ly hurtful to the community.
The law he declared, contemplated
no such absurdity.
The spirit and intent of the law was
that an election should be called only
on petition of one-third of those en-
titled to express their opinions at the
polls.
He cited as examples of carrying a
law to too literal a construction the
cases cited in Blackstone of where a
surgeon bled man in the city OF
Bologna and it was thought that he
was violating a law preventing the.
letting of blood in the streets; OF
where a survivor of wrecked snip
drifted on the derelict into port and
attempted to claim the vessel and con-
tents under the salvage laws.
Of
he said, was as absurd as the cases
of the two persons mentioned.
The words of the statute, he con-
tended, however, were not ambiguous.
In the sentence "one-third of the reg
istered voters registered" the impor-
tant word is voters" They are to be
voters of a certain sort-those who
are registered at municipal election.
That means this: there are two reg
istration books. The law deSignates
that those voters who are on the book
which is in charge of the city authori-
ties shall constitute the body from
which the test of the sufficiency of
the petition shall be made. They are
required to be registered on the book
that is in charge of the mayor and
other city officers and which they may
have an opportunity to scrutinize and
purify.
A voter is a man who votes-Who
is entitled to cast a ballot. Are the
men who signed the petition in August
when, by failure to pay their pfJl-taxes
by May first they had disqualified
themselves voters? He thought not.
That is the important word-voter
1t is noun. The other, registered
voter, is a participial adjective. His
conscience and his legal knowledge
would not permit him to consider a
man who could not vote voter. The
word is used in the Constitution, in
the statutes in the new charter of the
city of Raleigh. In neither case could
one who had not paid his poll-taX
within the time limited be voter,
whether he was registered or unreG-
istered. With respect to the payment
of poll-tax, Mr.. Battle stated that any
man who lacked sufficient respect for
himself or his fac1i' to pay the small
tax required, had no right to partici-
pate in any election or petition. He
quoted from the Constitution with
reference to the poll-tax requirement,
stating that the tax books go into the
hands of the sheriff in September and
that the citizens have seven months III
which to qualify by payment. If he
didn't pay he had lost his identity as
a voter He was dead. A sort of lying
dead, the property of whom used to
go to the crown. The dictionary de-
fines a voter as one who is entitled to
vote. Surely a man who is debarred
from being a voter for one purpose
could not be for another.
Mr.. Battle then read the Watts
Acts section providing that an cleo
ton could be held only once in two
years, stating that the reason of the
provision was to keep the people from
being agitated too often, stating that
if one third of the men who happened
to be on the registration books could
be allowed to call an election when
one-half or two-thirds of them would
have no voice in the result, the intent
of the law was destroyed.
He then took up and read the sec
ton of the Watts law relative to the
requirements of persons to register
and vote and also to petition, referred
to the Following section in which the
word qualified voter is used and argued