Paulson v. Forest City Community School Dist. in Winnebago, 2-58353

Decision Date21 January 1976
Docket NumberNo. 2-58353,2-58353
PartiesPaul PAULSON et al., Appellants, v. FOREST CITY COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT IN WINNEBAGO ET AL., COUNTIES, Iowa, et al., Appellees.
CourtIowa Supreme Court

Boyle, Schuler, Oltrogge & Stanton, Clear Lake, for appellants.

Cooper, Sinnard & Beebe, Forest City, and Harley Stipp, Winnebago County Atty., for appellees.

Heard by MOORE, C. J., and RAWLINGS, REES, UHLENHOPP and REYNOLDSON, JJ.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

This de novo appeal requires us to determine whether college students who voted at a school bond election were qualified voters.

On December 3, 1974, Forest City Community School District held an election on the question of issuing bonds to build and equip a schoolhouse. Waldorf College, a two-year liberal arts institution, is located in the School District. At the election, 145 Waldorf College students signed, and a board member approved, declarations of eligibility under § 49.77 of the Code, of which the following is a sample:

VOTER'S DECLARATION OF ELIGIBILITY

I do solemnly swear or affirm that I am a resident of the 1st Precinct, _ _ Ward or Township, City or Town of F.C. School Dist., County of Winnebago, Iowa.

I am a qualified elector. I have not voted and will not vote in any other precinct in the Spec. School election held on 12--3, 1974.

I am affiliated with the Party. (In Primary Election Only)

I understand that any false statement in this declaration is a criminal offense punishable as provided by law.

(singned) Mark Anderson

Signature of Voter

Waldorf

Address

Approved

(signed) BN

Board Member

Those students then voted in the election.

The voting on the proposition to issue bonds was such that if 140 or more of the students voted affirmatively and if they were not qualified voters, the proposition failed. Hence the two main questions are: how did the students vote? and were they qualified voters?

Plaintiff taxpayers and voters in the School District contested the election by suit in equity against the District and the election officials. See Patton v. Independent School Dist. of Coggon, 242 Iowa 941, 48 N.W.2d 803.

The parties to the suit agreed to present the two main questions in this order: to seek an adjudication as to whether the students were qualified voters, and if they were not, to ascertain under subpoena how each of them voted. The parties then entered into an agreed statement of facts on the qualified-voter issue and presented the issue to the trial court on that statement. The trial court found that the students were qualified voters. Plaintiffs appealed.

Most recent litigation over students' voting rights involves a constitutional challenge by students against statutes or practices restricting student voting. Here however the situation is reversed: the students were allowed to vote, and nonstudents challenge such voting on nonconstitutional grounds.

The parties' dispute over the students' voting involves only the problem of the students' residence. Moreover, the parties agree that the students must at least be 'voting residents' of the School District in order to vote there. See Code 1975, § 277.33; Buchmeier v. Pickett, 258 Iowa 1224, 142 N.W.2d 426. But the parties are poles apart as to whether these students were voting residents of Forest City Community School District.

Essentially the problem of the students' voting residence involves two questions: (1) What are the Iowa Legal requirements for voting residence? and (2) Do the Facts show these students met those requirements?

I. Requirements for Voting Residence. The legal requirements for voting residence in Iowa were initially established by the Iowa Constitution, which originally stated in § 1 of article II:

Every white male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of this State six months next preceding the election, and of the county in which he claims his vote, sixty days, shall be entitled to vote at all elections which are now or hereafter may be authorized by law.

The First Amendment to the Iowa Constitution struck the word 'white' from this section and the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had the effect of striking the word 'male.'

This court gave the word 'resident' in our constitution its traditional common-law meaning--domicile. Vanderpoel v. O'Hanlon, 53 Iowa 246, 248-249, 5 N.W. 119, 120 ('He is entitled to vote only in the county where his home is, where his fixed place of residence is, for the time being, and such place is and must be his domicile or place of abode, as distinguished from a residence acquired as a sojourner for business purposes, the attainment of an education, or any other purpose of a temporary character.'); State ex rel. Keary v. Mohr, 198 Iowa 89, 199 N.W. 278; Dodd v. Lorenz, 210 Iowa 513, 517, 231 N.W. 422, 424 ('The cases almost universally interpret the word 'residence' in election statutes as meaning 'domicile.").

In recent times, various restrictions on voting have been challenged on several grounds. See Note, Election Laws as Legal Roadblocks to Voting, 55 Iowa L.Rev. 616; Singer, Student Power at the Polls, 31 Ohio St.L.J. 703; Kirby, The Constitutional Right to Vote, 45 N.Y.U.L.rev. 995; Guido, Student Voting and Residency Qualifications, 47 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 32; Note, State Residency Requirements for Purposes of Voting, 21 American U.L.Rev. 774.

In 1970 the electors repealed § 1 of article II of the Iowa Constitution and adopted the following in its place:

Every citizen of the United States of the age of twenty-one years who shall have been a resident of this State for such period of time as shall be provided by law and of the county in which he claims his vote for such period of time as shall be provided by law, shall be entitled to vote at all elections which are now or hereafter may be authorized by law. The General Assembly may provide by law for different periods of residence in order to vote for various officers or in order to vote in various elections. The required periods of residence shall not exceed six months in this State and sixty days in the county.

The legislature implemented this new section by legislation; with one exception which we will later consider, however, we are not now concerned with that legislation, as the events here occurred under later acts.

On July 21, 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution became effective having the effect under the Supremacy Clause of reducing the voting age in the Iowa Constitution from 21 to 18:

The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Then on March 21, 1972, the United States Supreme Court decided Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330, 92 S.Ct. 995, 31 L.Ed.2d 274. That case dealt with pre-election durational residency requirements. The Court invalidated a Tennessee law which required one year residence in the state Prior to an election in order to vote. The Court stated, however, 'An appropriately defined and uniformly applied requirement of bona fide residence may be necessary to preserve the basic conception of a political community, and therefore could withstand close constitutional scrutiny.' 405 U.S. at 343--344, 92 S.Ct. at 1004, 31 L.Ed.2d at 285. See also Marston v. Lewis, 410 U.S. 679, 93 S.Ct. 1211, 35 L.Ed.2d 627.

Additionally, voting decisions by other federal courts began to cast a cloud on laws requiring an intention to Remain in the jurisdiction permanently or indefinitely in order to have a voting residence. Whatley v. Clark, 482 F.2d 1230 (5 Cir.), cert. den. 415 U.S. 934, 94 S.Ct. 1449, 39 L.Ed.2d 492; Newburger v. Peterson, 344 F.Supp. 559 (D.N.H.) (3-judge court); Shivelhood v. Davis, 336 F.Supp. 1111 (D.Vt.). See Annos. 31 L.Ed.2d 861, 44 A.L.R.3d 797.

With this background the Iowa legislature overhauled the election laws in 1973. 65 G.A. ch. 136. Two provisions of that act are pertinent to our inquiry. One prescribes the voter's declaration in the form we have set out. § 156 (§ 49.77, Code 1975). The other provision defines residence for voting, § 95 (§ 47.4(4) of the Code):

A person's residence, for voting purposes only, is the place which he declares is his home with the intent to remain there permanently or for a definite or indefinite or undeterminable length of time.

A preexisting third provision, found in § 49.9 of the Code, must be read with these provisions: 'No person shall vote in any precinct but that of his residence.'

To be eligible to vote in the bond election, therefore, the Waldorf students had to meet these requirements.

II. Factual Compliance. The students made the necessary declarations at the polls, and no one claims they tried to vote in the same time period in more than one precinct. Therefore the controversy comes down to whether they in fact met the requirements of § 47.4(4).

On that question plaintiffs first claim that § 47.4(4) cannot be applied literally. They say that if the section were applied in that fashion, all a person would need to do is make the declaration; that would give him an absolute right to vote whatever the facts might be.

Even the students however do not claim that much for the section. They admit that election officials and courts may look behind a declaration in case of fraud. We go a step farther. We think the legislature inserted the declaration for a purpose and that it is entitled to consideration. But other sections which were also in effect at the time demonstrate that the declaration is not conclusive. Sections 49.79 and 49.80, regarding proceedings at the polls, permit a person offering to vote to be challenged and then questioned on matters 'touching his qualifications as a voter.' An election official may not receive a ballot from a challenged person 'until such voter shall have established his right to vote.' The sections further provide, ...

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3 cases
  • Martinez v. Bynum
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • May 2, 1983
    ...v. Grimes, 113 Ind. 148, 13 N.E. 700 (1887); Brittenham v. Robinson, 18 Ind.App. 502, 48 N.E. 616 (1897); Paulson v. Forest City Community School Dist., 238 N.W.2d 344, 349 (Iowa 1976); Hershkoff v. Board of Registrars of Voters, 366 Mass. 570, 321 N.E.2d 656, 664 (Mass.1974); Robbins v. Ch......
  • Devine v. Wonderlich, 60823
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • June 28, 1978
    ...in favor of giving effect to the voter's choice, and every vote cast enjoys a presumption of validity. Paulson v. Forest City Community School District, 238 N.W.2d 344, 348 (Iowa 1976). As a general rule, if a voter affixes any mark to his ballot which fairly indicates his intention to vote......
  • Poe v. Central Lyon School Dist., 93-1020
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • April 20, 1994
    ...at 808. Relying on Patton, we reached an identical conclusion in a decision involving elector-taxpayers in Paulson v. Forest City Community School District, 238 N.W.2d 344 (Iowa 1976). The election statute we interpreted in Paulson (and earlier in Patton ) was promptly amended and expanded ......

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