Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/838

 826 raiDRRAIi REPORTER. �(besides other qualifications not necessary to mention,) pro- vide that a person who "shall have resided in this state one year next preceding an election, and the last six months within the district, county, city, or town in ^vhich he oflFers to vote, shall be deemed a qualified elector; and should such qualified elector happen to be in any other county situatedin the district in which he resides, at the time of an election, lie shall be permitted to vote for any district officer: provided, that the qualified electors shall be permitted to vote any- where in the state for state ofiScers," �Here the qualification to vote, so far as residence is an ele- ment of it, is manifestly that he shall have resided one year in the state and the last six months within some legally-de- fined district of the state; but such a residence only qualifies him to vote for state officers aUd for district officers when voting in some county embraced in the district, as defined by law, in which he resides. It is true that he cannot reside in any district without at the same time residing in some county, (or territory,) organized or unorganized; but it will not be claimed that he cannot reside six months in a district com- posed of several counties, without residing six months in any one county. And there is no mote reason in requiring that the six-months' residence should be in one county in the dis- trict to entitle him to vote for state and district ofi&cers, than there would be in going further and requiring that the six- months' residence should be in the same city or town in the county to entitle him to vote for county officers ; to do either would be to disregard the plain import of the language of the constitution. To my mind it is perfeetly clear that from 1845 to 1870 J. P. Kramer would not have lost his right to vote for state and district officers by moving from Eobertson county to Falls county within six months next before a gen- erai election. �The constitution of 1870 has two distinct and not entirely harmonious provisions on the subjectof suffrage — article 3, § 1, and art. 6, § 1. That constitution, however, had the same provision in reference to voting for state officers anywhere in the state, and district officers anywhere in the district of th© ��� �