Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/13

 Now such registry lists, eo nomme, are imperfect; they only make a prima facie case. No voter's right is extinguished by being omitted from that list, and no voter's right is secured by being illegally placed on it. The wrong done can be remedied at any time prior to the election; and yet such imperfect lists as these, under the name of registration of voters, congress, in the interests of the purity of the elective franchise, has ordered to be guarded and scrutinized. Now suppose, under the system of laws of the state of Delaware, the assessor makes list of persons owning and not owning property, above the age of 21 years, and is required by law under severe penalties to place on that list every freeman in his hundred above the age of 21 years; and suppose, after the the list is completed and corrected by the levy court in the latter part of March of every year, it is found that citizens qualified in every other respect to vote have, through inadvertence or corruption, been omitted from the lists; and suppose that omission is fatal, beyond the possibility of correction — an actual and utter extinguishment of such a citizen's right to vote — can it be held with any reason that such a state of facts does not constitute a registration of voters within the true meaning and intent of congress? It is admitted by counsel for the objectors that the law will apply to imperfect and inconclusive lists of voters, provided they are called by law "registration of voters;" but to apply that law, when the necessity of guarding and scrutinizing is vastly increased, from the fact that the omission of the name from the assessment list is absolutely without remedy, is held by them to be unwarranted.

Now, what is there in the words "registration of voters" that should require such a construction of the law as to defeat the manifest intention of congress? It will be borne in mind that there is no such expression as "system of registration" or "registry laws," and the only words to have a construction given to them are "registration, if one there be." What is registration? It is the act of making a list, or catalogue, or schedule, or register. The word "registration" is an ordinary one; it is used in a generic sense, not technical;