Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/330

 a republican form of government may set a higher standard for one race than for the other.

Persons Excluded from Suffrage

Certain classes of persons are excluded from the franchise because they are considered incapable or unfit to take a hand in governmental matters. The classes excluded are practically the same in all the States, and there is slight evidence of any race distinction in such cases. The following States do not allow paupers to vote: Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Other States, including Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, exclude the inmates of public institutions of charity, Louisiana and Oklahoma making an exception of Soldiers' Homes. Practically all the States exclude idiots and insane persons from the suffrage. Other classes, though not excluded from the suffrage, are not allowed to get the required residence to become electors. Thus, in a number of States, students in schools, unless self-supporting, do not get the required residence by living at the school. In a great majority of the States, soldiers and sailors in service do not gain an electoral residence in a State, county, or precinct by being stationed therein. California, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon exclude all but American-born Chinese. Where the Chinese, because of the Federal naturalization laws, are incapable of becoming citizens, they cannot be electors, because all the States require the electors to be either citizens or persons who have formally declared their intention to become citizens. Idaho, Maine, Michi