State v. Stone

• Decision Date: 27 June 1898
• Docket Number: 1,534.
• Citation: 53 P. 497,24 Nev. 308
• Parties: STATE ex rel. WILSON v. STONE, Justice of the Peace.
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

53 P. 497

24 Nev. 308

STATE ex rel. WILSON v. STONE, Justice of the Peace.

No. 1,534.

Supreme Court of Nevada

June 27, 1898

Original proceeding for mandamus on relation of John Wilson against W H. Stone, registry agent, to compel the registration of his name as a legal voter. Writ granted.

William Woodburn, for relator.

A. J McGowan, for respondent.

BONNIFIELD and MASSEY, JJ.

The relator applied to the respondent, a justice of the peace and ex-officio registry agent of Carson township, Ormsby county to be registered as a voter. The respondent refused to register his name, on the ground that the relator did not exhibit a poll-tax receipt for the years 1897 and 1898, as required by an act of the legislature entitled "An act to require the payment of poll tax by all legal voters under sixty years of age," approved February 9, 1897. It appears that the relator posseses all the qualifications of an elector as prescribed by section 1 of article 2 of the constitution of this state. The payment of poll tax is not among such qualifications. The relator, to test the validity of said act, petitions this court for a writ of mandamus to compel the respondent to register his name under the provisions of the general registration law. Section 6 of article 2 of the constitution requires that: "Provision shall be made by law for the registration of the names of the electors within the counties of which they may be residents and for the ascertainment, by proper proofs, of the persons who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage as hereby established to preserve the purity of elections, and to regulate the manner of holding and making returns of the same; and the legislature shall have power to prescribe by law any other or further rules or oaths as may be deemed necessary as a test of electoral qualification." In conformity to the above requirements of said section 6, the legislature in 1869 passed the existing general registration act. Considering the provisions of this act alone, the relator is entitled to be registered thereunder; but the act in question, of 1897, modifies the provisions of the general registration act, to wit: "Section 1. The name of no person under the age of sixty years shall be registered by any registry agent until such person shall exhibit a proper receipt for the poll tax required by law for then current year and also for the preceding year when such person shall have been an inhabitant of the state of Nevada during the last six months of the preceding year. ***" Said section 6 of article 2 of the constitution authorizes and requires the legislature to provide by law for the registration of all persons who possess the prescribed...