Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/20

 12 ' FEDBBAL BEFOBTEB. �exist in the lists made by the clerk of the peace aa in the registration of voters made by the assessor under the Penn- sylvania laws. Bt^ it has been argued by the objectors that even if these lists made out by the clerk of the peace were lists of voters, the guarding and scrutinizing must be con- fined to the action of the clerks of the peace ; that it cannot be extended to the action of the hundred assessors or the action of the levy court. �The answer to this is a simple and easy one. The deter- mination of the essential element of the right to vote, an in- dispensable prerequisite, viz., that of assessment, by the con- stitution of the state, is primarUy made by the assessor, and finally determined by the levy court in the completion of their assessment Ksts, and that determination, expressed by the act of assessment itself, becomes incorporated into and a part of that list of voters made out by the clerk of the peace. A deniai, therefore, of the right to guard and scrutinize the ac- tion of the assessors and the levy court in that respect would be fatal to the right of the voter, as the period and opportu- nity -svould have passed by when he oould claim his right to be assessed — the essential prerequisite, as before stated, of the exercise of the right of suffrage. �The attorney general, Mr. G-ray, assumes that we have no registration of voters within the meaning and intent of the act of congress, and then argues that the acts of the assess- ors and members of the levy court cannot be guarded and serutinized under any of the provisions of section 2011, or congress would have added the comprehensive language of ■ section 2005. �But, ïis I have shown that we have in substance a registra- tion law within the olôar meaning and intent of the act of congress, the argument can have no application. �Both of the counsel contend that the lists in the handa of the assessors and in the hands of the levy court are not lists of voters, because in addition to the voters others are assessed, BUch as females and non-residents. Now, while it may not be a list containing ail the qualifications of voters, it is a list tvhieh emhraces the namea of every one having the prerequi- ��� �