Lassiter v. Northampton County Bd. of Elections

• Decision Date: 09 April 1958
• Docket Number: No. 170,170
• Parties: Louise LASSITER v. NORTHAMPTON COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 853

102 S.E.2d 853

248 N.C. 102

Louise LASSITER v. NORTHAMPTON COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS.

No. 170

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

April 9, 1958

Taylor & Mitchell, Raleigh, James R. Walker, Jr., Weldon, for plaintiff-appellant.

E. N. Riddle, Jackson, Fletcher & Lake, Raleigh, for defendant-appellee.

Atty. Gen. George B. Patton, Asst. Atty. Gen. Ralph Moody, amicus curiae.

WINBORNE, Chief Justice.

The immediate question on this appeal is this: Is plaintiff, upon the agreed statement of facts, entitled to register for voting without meeting the test of reading and writing any section of the Constitution of North Carolina in the English language, as required by General Statutes, § 163-28 as amended? The trial court was of opinion that plaintiff is not so entitled to register. This Court concurs in this ruling.

General Statutes, § 163-28 as amended by 1957 Session Laws of North Carolina, Chapter 287, Section 1, effective 12 April, 1957, under caption 'Voter must be able to read and write; registrar to administer section,' declares that 'Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able to read and write any section of the Constitution of North Carolina in the English language,' and that 'it shall be the duty of each registrar to administer the provisions of this section.'

And in the same act, 1957 Session Laws, Chapter 287, the General Assembly of North Carolina made provision (1) for appeal to County Board of Elections from registrar's denial of registration, G.S. § 163-28.1; (2) for hearing de novo upon such appeal before County Board of Elections, G.S. § 163-28.2; (3) Appeal from judgment of County Board of Elections to Superior Court, and hearing thereon; and (4) appeal from judgment of Superior Court to Supreme Court, G.S. § 163-28.3.

The plaintiff applied for registration and refused to submit to, and qualify for the educational test,--that is, either to read or write any section of the Constitution of North Carolina as related in the foregoing stipulation of facts. And for this reason, and this reason alone, she was not admitted to registration.

At the outset she contends that the above provisions of G.S. § 163-28 are unconstitutional by reason of conflict with the suffrage provisions of the constitution of North Carolina.

In this connection it is appropriate to trace the history of Article VI, of the Constitution of North Carolina, omitting sections not necessary to inquiry in hand.

Beginning with the Constitution of the State of North Carolina 'done in convention at Raleigh the sixteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States the ninetysecond,' the pertinent provision as to 'suffrage and eligibility to office' is contained in Article VI, as amended by the Constitutional Convention of 1875, to read as follows:

'Section 1. Every male person born in the United States, and every male person who has been naturalized, twenty-one years old, or upward, who shall have resided in this State twelve months next preceding the election, and ninety days in the county in which he offers to vote, shall be deemed an elector. But no person who, upon conviction or confession in open court, shall be adjudged guilty of a felony, or of any other crime infamous by the laws of this State, and hereafter committed shall be deemed an elector, unless such person shall be restored to the rights of citizenship in a manner prescribed by law.

'Sec. 2. Registration of Electors: It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide from time to time, for the registration of all electors, and no person shall be allowed to vote without registration, or to register, without first taking an oath or affirmation to support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith * *.'

Thereafter the General Assembly of 1899 passed an act entitled 'An act to amend the constitution of North Carolina,' P.L.1899, Chapter 218, abrogating Article Six of the Constitution of North Carolina, and proposing a substitute thereof, to be submitted at the next general election on May 1, 1899, but it was not so submitted. However, the General Assembly, at its adjourned session of 1900, passed another act, Chapter 2, Laws of Adjourned Session 1900, entitled 'An Act Supplemental to an Act entitled 'An Act to Amend the Constitution of North Carolina,' ratified February twenty-first, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, the same being Chapter two hundred eighteen of the Public Laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-nine' reading as follows:

'The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

'Section 1. That Chapter 218, Public Laws of 1899 entitled 'An Act to Amend the Constitution of North Carolina,' be amended so as to make said act read as follows: 'That Article Six of the Constitution of North Carolina be and the same is hereby abrogated, and in lieu thereof shall be substituted the following Article of the Constitution as an entire and indivisible plan of suffrage,

"Article VI

"Suffrage and Eligibility to Office

"(Section 1) Every male person born in the United States, and every male person who has been naturalized, twenty-one years of age, and possessing the qualifications set out in this Article, shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people of the State, except as herein otherwise provided.

"(Sec. 2) He shall have resided in the State of North Carolina for two years, in the county six months, and in the precinct, ward, or other election district, in which he offers to vote, four months next preceding the election: Provided, that removal from one precinct, ward, or other election district, to another in the same county, shall not operate to deprive any person of the right to vote in the precinct, ward or other election district from which he has removed until four months after such removal. No person who has been convicted or who has confessed his guilt in open court upon indictment, of any crime, the punishment of which now is, or may hereafter be, imprisonment in the State's Prison, shall be permitted to vote, unless the said person shall be first restored to citizenship in the manner prescribed by law.

"(Sec. 3) Every person offering to vote shall be at the time a legally registered voter as herein prescribed, and in the manner provided by law, and the General Assembly of North Carolina shall enact general registration laws to carry into effect the provisions of this Article.

"(Sec. 4) Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language; and before he shall be entitled to vote, he shall have paid on or before the first day of May, of the year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax for the previous year, as prescribed in Article V, Section 1, of the Constitution. But no male person, who was, on January 1, 1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any State in the United States wherein he then resided, and no lineal descendant of any such person shall be denied the right to register and vote at any election in this State by reason of his failure to possess the educational qualifications herein prescribed: Provided, he shall have registered in accordance with the terms of this section prior to December 1, 1908.

"The General Assembly shall provide for the registration of all persons entitled to vote without the educational qualifications herein prescribed, and shall, on or before November 1, 1908, provide for the making of a permanent record of such registration, and all persons so registered shall forever thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by the people of this State, unless disqualified under Section 2 of this Article: Provided, such perso shall have paid his poll tax as above required.

"(Sec. 5) That this amendment to the Constitution is presented and adopted as one indivisible plan for the regulation of the suffrage, with the intent and purpose to so connect the different parts, and to make them so dependent upon each other, that the whole shall stand or fall together * * *."'

Section 9 declares that if a majority of votes be cast at the next general election in favor of this suffrage amendment, it shall go into effect on July 1, 1902.

And machinery is provided for submitting the question to a vote of the people, and for determining and declaring the result of the election, and the certification and enrollment of the amendment among the permanent records of the office of Secretary of State.

The act was in force from and after ratification,--June 13, 1900.

The amendment to the Constitution was submitted to and approved by the qualified voters of the State at the next general election, and became Article VI of the State Constitution, and enrolled as required January 25, 1901.

Since the adoption of amendment last above mentioned, Article VI of the Constitution has been amended as follows:

(1) The General Assembly at its 1919 session, passed an act, Chapter 129, entitled 'An Act to Amend the Constitution of the State of North Carolina,' which amended Sections 2 and 4 of Article VI as follows: 'IV. By striking out the first sentence of Section 2 of Article VI, and substituting therefor the following: 'He shall reside in the State of North Carolina for one year and in the precinct, ward or other election district in which he offers to vote four months next preceding the election,"' and

'V. By striking out of section 4 of article VI the following: 'And before he shall be entitled to vote he shall have paid, on or before the first day of May in the year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax for the previous years as prescribed in Article V, section 1, of the Constitution.' ' And the act declared that amendments IV and V as just stated be considered as one amendment and submitted to the voters of...