Arizona republican., 1909-03-03

speaking of the printed words cannot as matter of fact show whether he is reading or is reciting from memory. The most unbiased and dispassionate judge would not venture in most cases at least an opinion. He would not dare to say more than that it appears to him either that the other is read ing. or that he is reciting It Is mere opinion. incapable of contradiction or demonstration. It would not be diff cult for an illiterate person (and illit- crate people are noted for quick and retentive memories) to memorize the whole Of the constitution and recite so as to defy contradiction of the fact that he was reading. On the other hand, there are many comparatively well educated people who cannot read without hesitancy. repetition and fault, especially under the embarrassment and excitement of a test; and that the hesitancy. repetition and fault are not due to defective memory, is purely a matter of opinion.
 In practice it is not to be supposed that the proposed voter shall read the whole of the constitution-that would ht ei AthAOhS HAbNt1N- IAbN teSEs lllNils it would be for the illiterate voter to memorize a particular section under a pre-arranged plan. and that section be presented to him to read (recite in facD by the registering officer. I need only suggest the possibilities for fraud under this plan.
 This bill provides that a voter may be challenged on the grounds that he cannot read the constitution in such a manner as to show that he is neither being prompted nor reciting from memory. The inspector on the election board must apply the test, and the majority of the board decide it. Elec- ton boards are always partisan In the heat of the strife of an election partisanship runs high and the judg- ments of men are swayed by party spirit. The members of the election board have an intense interest in the result of the election and they are made the judges upon whose decision may depend the result of the election for or against them. And that judg- ment is simply an opinion as to whether a man is reading or reciting- an opinion worth little in the most dispassionate moments and wholly worthless or worse in the hot zeal of a fiercely contested political election An opinion that can be impeached by no rule and from which there is no appeal.
 Under this bill men may be dis franchised by the error of judgment of a most honest election board, or men may be enfranchised who can not read a word of English or any l other language. But how much more ' dangerous is it that men may be dis franchised by a partisan boards opin- | ion and how wide open the door to tNc | admission of illiterate voters Under this bill a dominant party could cer- | petuate itself in power beyond rrHi- edy
 We have laws to prevent, as far as that can be done. the admission of { fraudulent votes. This bill makes it | easy for admission of fraudulent and | for the exclusion of honest voters as partisan interest may dictate or sug- gest.
 If we are to have an educational f let us have it so for l mulated that the test can be fairly applied. Under this bill the applica- l. ton of the test, under the most dis passionate environment, by the most honest and painstaking of men im- pelled by no present interest to depart from the plain path of justice and right. is wholly unreliable and there fore inherently vicious and wrong. To men because t is the opinion of a registering officer that the voter in speaking the words of a part or of the whole of the constitu- ton, is simply reciting from memory md not reading. is too frail protec- ton to one of the most inestimable rights of American citizens. To per nit the right of franchise to depend lpon the mere opinion of a majority 1f an election board. excited by par -isan zeal, whose judgments are un strung by the bitterness of a party contest, without impeachment or pos ;ibility of correction, is too dangerous -o be regarded with any degree of 
 I therefore return this bill without my approval
 JOSEPH H. KIBBEY, Governor.
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