Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1920-09-01
WOMEN MAY VOTE
States Attorney and Attorney Gen.
eral Give Opinions.

\ Several boards of civil authority
have asked me if women have the
right to vote at the coming Septem-
Der primaries without legislation on
that subject. While there was no
question in my mind that women pos
sessing the necessary statutory quail
fications had that right, / deemed it
wise to withhold my opinion until /
had obtained the opinion of the attor-
ney general on this matter and he
gives the opinion that women who
can qualify are entitled to vote at
the primaries and at the elections
without further legislation.
The Nineteenth amendment, Civ
ing women universal suffrage, became
effective on its ratification by the leg
islatures of three-fourths of the sew
eral states; Tennessee being the state
making the necessary three-fourths.
The adoption of this amendment
had the effect, in law, to remove from
our state constitution, or render in
perative, that provision which re-
stricts the right of suffrage to male
citizens, and to enlarge in its opera
tion, the statute which prescribes the
qualifications of voters, so as to en-
brace women as well as men.
Technically the amendment does
not confer the right of suffrage upon
women, but forbids Discrimination
against any citizen by the United
States or by any state on account of
sex. 1t secures to women the same
right to vote as that possessed by
men, and. subject to this limitation,
the states still possess uncomfortable
authority to regulate the right of
suffrage according to their own views
of expediency.
Section 72 of the General Laws of
Vermont, which prescribes the quail
fcations of voters, refers only to
male citizens. The effect of the
Nineteenth amendment is to strike
out the word 'male" so as to make
this section to read as follows:
every citizen twenty-one years of
age or more, having resided in the
state one year next preceding a gen
eral election, who has taken the free
mans oath as provided in the, consti-
tuition, shall have the right to vote
at such election for the officers to be
elected thereat in the town where
he Cor she) resides on the day of
such election; but he Cor she) shall
general assembly or justices at such
election, unless he (er she) has re-
sided, during the three months next
preceding such election, in the town
which is his (or her) residence on the
day of such election"
Section 7S of the General Laws
provides that a person shall not be
admitted to take the freeman's oath
or to vote at an election until he has
obtained the appreciation of the board
of civil authority of the town II
which he resides.
To entitle a woman to vote she
must appear before the board Of civi
authority of the town in which she
lives, satisfy it that she possesses the
qualifications prescribed by Section
~ of the General Laws, take the
oath of Allegiance to the State OF
Vermont, the oath to support the con-
stitution of the United States and the
freeman's oath, and see that he1
name is placed on the check list. II
she possesses the necessary quallfi-
cations the board of civil. authority
cannot refuse to administer the oaths
to her and place her name on the
check list.
In this connection I might add that
the statutes of the United States pro-
vide that "any woman who is now OF
may hereafter be married to a citizen
of the United States, and who might
herself be lawfully naturalized, shall
be deemed citizen;" and, "any Amer
lean woman who marries foreigner
shall take the nationality of her hus-
Frank D. Thompson,
States Attorney.