ELECTIONS

the selection by popular vote of candidates for public office. heir conduct is controlled by various statutes, both federal and state, ‘to enable voters to exercise entire freedom of action, prevent improper practices in voting, receiving and counting votes, and in registering the resulsts. The courts pa upon the validity and regularity of elections when their conduct is questioned. In the case of national and state elections, Congre and the state legislatures have the final voice where the return of a cond i date for membership is disputed. The holding of an election must have lawful authority and conform to legal requirement as to the occasion and preliminary steps therefor, and as to time and place. Candidates for national and state elections are chosen either by delegates under the convention system, or by the direct primary. In some cases, as in many minicipalities, the non-partisan primary is adopted. There are also nominations by petitions only, chiefly used in local elections. In a number of states, the political parties can choose presidential candidates by direct primary elections. To facilitate the holding of elections, voting districts are formed, supervised by an _ election board, and polling places, containing ballot boxes, booths and other facilties for voting, are established in them.. Most of the states require that voters of either sex be at least 21 years of age, and be full-fledged citizens of the United States, either native or naturalized, and can read or write English or both. Some states grant the privilege of voting to aliens after the latter declare their intention to become citizens and acquire a residential qualification. Idiots, insane persons and felons are not allowed to vote, and sometimes the franchise is denied to vagrants, paupers, person convicted of treason, bribers, embezziers, bigamists, Chinese, etc. The election laws of the states vary. Voters must have fixed places of abode and vote in the districts where they live. The right to vote is lost temporarily by a change of addre . Some states sanction absentee voting by mail or by permitting a vote to be recorded in a district other than that where the voter resides. On the Mexican and in the World War facilities were provided for American troops to vote in the elections of 1916 and 1917. Residents in Washington, D. C., or the District of Columbia have no vote. Registration is a preliminary to the exercise of the voting privilege. Nearly all the states require that citizens eligible to vote be officially listed in advance of each election. Arkansas and Texas, however, do not require registration. Other states call for registration according to the population status of communities, or whether they be in the first, second, third or fourth cla cities. Where registration is e ential the citizen must either appear in person and enroll, specially in the larger cities. In some cases the state laws require personal identification. In some states, again, a voter is registering declares his party affiliation, if any. In the South, legal devices to restrict the exercise of negro suffrage, despite the full citizenship rights conferred on the colored population by the Constitution, have operated to keep that section dominated by the white vote. Several of the Southern States pa ed so-called ‘grandfather’ laws to nullify the Fifteenth Amendment. Such laws sought to confine the right to vote only to those persons whose ancestors were voters in a certain year—in one state, 1866; in another 1869—and to naturalized persons and their descendants. The grandfather’s clause was not upheld by the Supreme Court where it has been appealed. RUPTION IN. See Corruer PRacTICES.