Page:A History of the Australian Ballot System in the United States.djvu/66

Rh the illiterate voter. The usual arguments against aiding the illiterate voter are: first, that a man who is too ignorant to vote correctly is not worthy of the right to vote, because he cannot form that intelligent opinion essential to good government; secondly, that by assisting an ignorant voter you may make it possible to know how an elector votes and so open the door to corruption; thirdly, that the desire to vote will act as an incentive to acquire an education. Those in favor of helping the ignorant elector declare, first, that he has as much interest in voicing his needs by means of the ballot as the educated, and to deny him assistance is to disfranchise him; secondly, that if he votes without assistance, he has to do so in a haphazard way and may vote for the wrong candidates; thirdly, that there is little danger of corruption, as the election officers are bound to secrecy.

The first Australian-ballot act passed in the United States, the Louisville act, made no provision for aiding illiterates, and required every voter to retire alone to one of the compartments and, unaided, to mark his ballot. The Kentucky Court of Appeals in the case of Rogers v. Jacob declared that this provision violated the section of the constitution requiring all elections to be free and equal. "It practically operates to deprive a person who is unable to read or write of a free and intelligible choice of those he may desire to vote for, and in fact makes free suffrage as to them a matter of chance or accident." The influence of this decision was far-reaching in determining the case in favor of assisting the illiterates.

At the present time voters unable to read the English language are denied assistance in ten states. In Massachusetts an illiterate can obtain assistance in preparing his ballot if he was a voter on May 1, 1857. Wyoming has a similar provision for men or women who were voters on July 10, 1890; and Virginia also permits illiterates to be helped if