USA > Louisiana > A history of Louisiana, revised edition > Part 26
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All persons whose names appear on said registration lists shall be admitted to register for all elections in this State without possessing the educational or property qualitication prescribed by this Consti- tution, unless otherwise disqualified, and all persons who do not by personal application claim exemption from the provisions of sec- tions 3 and 4 of this article before September 1, 1898, shall be forever denied the right to do so.
The Legislature shall, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, provide the manner in which persons whose names appear upon said registration list shall hereafter register, which mnode may be different from that required for persons registering under the other sections of this article; and shall also provide a remedy whereby subsequently to the close of said registration on August 31, 1898, the names of any persons who may have obtained registration under this section by false statements of fact or other fraud, shall by appropriate proceedings be stricken from said roll.
Art. 198. No person less than sixty years of age shall be permitted to vote at any election in this State who shall not, in addition to the qualifications above described, have paid on or before the 31st day of December, of each year, for the two years pre- ceding the year in which he offers to vote, a poll tax of one dol- lar per annum, to be used exclusively in aid of the public schools of the parish in which such tax shall have been collected; which tax is hereby imposed on every male resident of this State between the age of twenty-one and sixty years. Poll taxes shall be a lien only upon assessed property, and no process shall issue to enforce the collection of the same except against assessed property.
Every person liable for such tax shall, before being allowed to vote, exhibit to the Commissioners of Election his poll tax receipts for two years, issued on the official form, or duplicates thereof, in
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the event of loss, or proof of payment of such poll taxes may be made by a certificate of the tax collector, which shall be sent to the Commissioners of the several voting precincts, showing a list of those who have paid said two years' poll taxes as above provided, and the dates of payment. It is hereby declared to be forgery, and punishable as such, for any tax collector or other person, to ante- date, or alter a poll tax receipt. Any person who shall pay the poll tax of another or advance him money for that purpose, in order to influence his vote, shall be guilty of bribery and punished accord- ingly. The provisions of this section as to the payment of poll taxes shall not apply to persons who are deaf and dumb, or blind, nor to persons under twenty-three years of age, who have paid all poll taxes assessed against them. This section shall not go into operation until after the general State election to be held in the year 1900, and the Legislature elected in the year 1908 shall have authority to repeal or modify the same.
Art. 199. Upon all questions submitted to the taxpayers, as such, of any municipal or other political subdivision of this State, the qualifications of such taxpayers as voters shall be those of age and residence prescribed by this article, and women taxpayers shall have the right to vote at all such elections, without registration, in person or by their agents, authorized in writing; but all other persons voting at such elections shall be registered voters.
Art. 200. No person shall vote at any primary election, or in any convention or other political assembly held for the purpose of nomi- nating any candidate for public office, unless he is at the time a reg- istered voter. And in all political conventions in this State, the apportionment of representation shall be on the basis of population.
Art. 201. Any person possessing the qualifications prescribed by Sec. 3 or 4 of Art. 197 of this Constitution, who may be denied reg- istration, shall have the right to apply for relief to the District Court having jurisdiction of civil causes for the parish in which he offers to register, and the party cast in said suit shall have the right of appeal to the Supreme Court; and any citizen of the State shall have a like right to apply to said courts, to have stricken off any names illegally placed on said registration rolls under Sees. 3 and 4 of Art. 197, and such applications and appeal shall be tried by said courts by preference, in open court or at chambers. The General Assembly shall provide by law for such applications and appeals without cost, and for the prosecution of all persons charged with illegal or fraudulent registration or voting, or any other crime or offence against the registration or election or primary election laws.
Art. 202. The following persons shall not be permitted to regis- ter, vote or hold any office or appointment of honor, trust or profit in this State, to-wit : Those who have been convicted of any crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, and not afterwards pardoned with express restoration of franchise; those who are in- mates of any charitable institution, except the Soldiers' Home; those actually confined in any public prison; all interdicted persons, and all persons notoriously insane or idiotic, whether interdicted or not.
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Art. 203. In all elections by the people, the electors shall vote by ballot, and the ballots cast shall be publicly counted. In all elec- tions by persons in a representative capacity, the vote shall be viva voce.
Art. 204. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony or- breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attend- ance on elections, and in going to and returning from the same.
Art. 205. The General Assembly shall by law forbid the giving or selling of intoxicating drinks, on the day of any election, or primary election, within one mile of any polling place.
Art. 206. Until otherwise provided by law, the general State elec- tion shall be held once every four years on the Tuesday next follow- ing the third Monday in April.
Presidential electors and members of Congress shall be chosen or elected in the manner and at the time prescribed by law.
Art, 207. Parochial elections, except in the city of New Orleans, shall be held on the same day as the general State election, and not oftener than one : in four years.
In the city of New Orleans parochial and municipal elections shall be held on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, 1899, and of every fourth year thereafter, but the General Assembly may change the date of said election after the year 1899; provided, that the parochial and municipal elections shall be held together, and shall always be on a day separate and apart from the general State election and not oftener than once in four years. The municipal and parochial officers in the city of New Orleans shall take their offices on the first Monday in the month of May following their elec- tion, until otherwise provided by law.
Art. 208. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained a residence, by reason of his presence, or lost it by reason of his absence, while employed in the service, either civil or military, of this State or of the United States; or while engaged in the navigation of the waters of the State or of the United States; or of the high seas; or while a student of any institution of learning.
Art. 209. The General Assembly shall provide by law for the trial and determination of contested elections of all public officers, whether State, judicial, parochial or municipal (except Governor and Lieutenant Governor), which trials shall be by the courts of law and at the domicile of the party defendant.
Art. 210. No person shall be eligible to any office, State, judicial, parochial, municipal or ward, who is not a citizen of this State and a duly qualified elector of the State, judicial district, parish, muni - cipality or ward, wherein the functions of said office are to be per- formed. And whenever any officer, State, judicial, parochial. municipal or ward, may change his residence from this State, or from the district, parish, municipality or ward in which he holds such office, the same shall thereby be vacated, any declaration of retention of domicile to the contrary notwithstanding.
Art. 211. Returns of elections for all civil officers who are to be commissioned by the Governor shall be made to the Secretary of State, unless otherwise provided in this Constitution.
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Art. 212. All elections by the people, except primary elections and municipal elections in towns having a population of less than 2500, when such elections are not held at the same time as general State elections, shall be by official ballot, printed and distributed at the expense of the State; and, until otherwise provided- by law, such ballots shall have printed thereon, and at the head and imme- diately preceding the list of names of the candidates of each politi- cal party or nominating paper, a specific and separate device by which the political party and the candidates of such political party, or nominating paper may be indicated. By stamping such device at the head of the list of candidates of each political party, or nomi- nating paper, the voter may indicate that his vote is for the entire or straight ticket of the political party or nominating paper em- ploying the particular device allotted to such political party, or nominating paper. When the voter does not desire to vote an entire or straight party ticket, he may vote for candidates of any political party or nominating paper, by stamping a blank space to be left opposite the name of each candidate on said official ballot.
The General Assembly shall provide some plan by which the voters may prepare their ballots' ir secrecy at the polls. This article shall not be construed so as to prevent the names of independent candidates from being printed on the ballots with a device; and names of candidates may be written on the ballot. These provisions shall not apply to elections for the imposition of special taxes, for which the General Assembly shall provide special laws.
Art. 213. Electors shall not be registered within thirty days next preceding any election at which they may offer to vote, but appli- cations to the courts, and appeals may be heard and determined. and revision take place at any time prior to the election, and no person who, in respect to age and residence, would become entitled to vote within the said thirty days, shall be excluded from registra- tion on account of his want of qualifications at the time of his appli- cation for registration.
Art. 214. The Legislature shall provide for the registration of voters throughout the State.
Art. 215. The Legislature shall enact laws to secure fairness in party primary elections, conventions, or other methods of naming party candidates.
Art. 216. In the trial of contested elections and in proceedings for the investigation of elections, and in all criminal trials under the election laws, no person shall be permitted to withhold his testimony on the grounds that he may eriminate himself or subject himself to public infamy, but such.testimony shall not be used against him in any judicial proceedings except for perjury in giving such testimony.
Impeachment and Removals from Office.
Art. 217. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor, Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Education, Railroad Commissioners and the judges of all the Courts of Record in this State shall be liable to impeachment for high
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crimes and misdemeanors, for nonfeasanee or malfeasance in office, for incompetency, for corruption, favoritism, extortion or op- pression in office, or for gross misconduct. or habitual drunken- ness.
Art. 218. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate: " when sitting for that purpose, the Senators shall be upon oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted without the concur- rence of two-thirds of the Senators present. When the Governor of the State is on trial the Chief Justice or the senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside.
The Senate may adjourn the trial of any impeachment from time to time, as it may deem proper, and may sit for the purpose of such trial whether the House of Representatives or the Legislature be in session or not.
Judgment in cases of impeachment shall extend only to removal from office and disqualitication from holding any oflice of honor, trust or protit, under the State, but the party, whether convicted or acquit - ted, shall nevertheless be liable to prosecution, trial and punishment according to law.
Art. 219. All officers against whom articles of impeachment are preferred, except the Governor, shall be suspended from office during the pendency of such impeachment, and the appointing power shall make a provisional appointment to replace any suspended officer until the decision of the impeachment.
Art. 220. For any reasonable cause, whether sufficient for im- peachment or not, the Governor shall remove any officer on the address of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly. In every such case, the cause or causes for which such removal may be required shall be stated at length in the ad- dress and inserted in the Journal of each house.
Art. 221. For any of the causes specified in Art. 217, judges of the Courts of Appeal, and of the District Courts throughout the State inay be removed from office by judgment of the Supreme Court, which is hereby vested with original jurisdiction to try such causes. The suit for removal may be instituted by the Attorney General or District Attorney, whenever in his opinion sufficient cause exists therefor; and it is hereby made the duty of the Attorney General or District Attorney to institute such suit whenever instructed in writing by the Governor so to do, or on the written request and information of twenty-five citizens and taxpayers residing within the territorial limits of the distriet or cireuit over which the judge against
. whom the suit is brought exercises the functions of his office. Such suits shall be tried after citation and ten days' delay for answering, in preference to all other suits, and whenever the court may be sit - ting; but the pendeney of such suit shall not operate a suspension from office. In all cases where the officer sued, as above directed, shall be acquitted, and where the suit is instituted on the request and Information of citizens, judgment shall be rendered jointly and in solido against the citizens signing the request, for all costs of the suit Judgments in cases of removal under this article shall extend
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not only to removals from office and disqualification from holding any oflice of honor, trust, or profit under the State, but also to dis- qualification for the practice of law, and the party, whether con- victed or not, shall nevertheless be liable to prosecution, trial and punishment according to law.
Art. 222. For any of the causes enumerated in Art. 217, members of the State Board of Appraisers, except the Auditor, Railroad Comnis - sioners, District Attorneys, Clerks of Court, Sheriffs, Coroners, Jus- tices of the Peace, Judges of the City Courts and of other inferior courts of the city of New Orleans and elsewhere, and all other par- ish, municipal and ward officers, may be removed by judgment of the District Court of the domicile of such officer (in the parish of Orleans the Civil District Court). The District Attorney may, whenever in his opinion sufficient cause exists therefor, institute such suit, and it shall be his duty (except when the suit is to be brought against himself) to institute such suit on the written request and information of twenty-five resident citizens and taxpayers, in the case of members of the State Board of Appraisers, Railroad Com- missioners, district, parish or municipal officers, and of ten resident citizens and taxpayers in the case of ward officers. Such suit shall be brought against a District Attorney upon such written request and information by the District Attorney of an adjoining district, or by counsel appointed by the judge for that purpose. In all suits insti- tuted under this article the defendant, the State and the citizens and taxpayers, on whose information and at whose request such suit may have been brought, or any one of them, shall have the right to appeal, both on the law and the facts, from the judgment of the court. In all cases where the officer sued, as above directed, shall be acquitted, judgment shall be rendered jointly and in solido against the citizens signing the request, for all costs of the suit.
In cases against members of the State Board of Appraisers, Rail- road Commissioners, Distriet Attorneys, Clerks and Sheriffs, the appeal shall be to the Supreme Court, and in cases against all other officers the appeal shall be to the Court of Appeal of the proper circuit.
Such appeals shall be returnable within ten days to the appellate court wherever it may be sitting or wherever it may hold its next session, and may be transferred by order of the judges of said court to another parish within their circuit, and such appeals shall be tried by preference over all others. In case of the refusal or neglect of the District Attorney or Attorney General to institute and prose- cute any suit provided for in this and the preceding article, the citi- zens and taxpayers making the request, or any one of them, shall have the right by mandamus to compel him to perform such duty.
The institution and pendency of suits brought under this article shall not operate a suspension of the defendant from office.
Art. 223. On the recommendation of the Auditor or the police jury of any parish the Governor may suspend any officer charged with the collection of custody of public funds when in arrears,
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Revenue and Taxation.
Art. 224, The taxing power may be exercised by the General As- sembly for State purposes, and by parishes and municipal corporations and public boards, under authority granted to their by the General- Assembly, for parish, municipal and local purposes strictly public in their nature.
Art. 225. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughont the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and all property shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as directed by law; provided, the assessment of all property shall never exceed the actual cash value thereof; and provided, further, that the tax- payers shall have the right of testing the correctness of their assess- inents before the courts of justice. Inorder to arrive at this equality and uniformity the General Assembly shall, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, provide a system of equality and uniformity in assessments based upon the relative value of property in the different portions of the State. The valuations put upon prop- erty for the purposes of State taxation shall be taken as the proper valuation for the purposes of local taxation, in every subdivision of the State.
Art. 226. There shall be a State Board of Appraisers, composed of the Auditor, and six other members, to be elected for four years by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, one from each Congressional District, whose duty it shall be to assess the property belonging to corporations, associations and individuals employed in railway, telegraph, tele- phone, sleeping car and express business. The General Assembly shall fix the compensation of said board.
Art. 227. The taxing power shall be 'exercised only to carry on and maintain the government of the State and the public institutions thereof, to educate the children of the State, to preserve the public health, to pay the principal, and interest of the public debt, to sup- press insurrection, to repel invasion or defend the State in time of war, to provide pensions for indigent Confederate soldiers and sailors, and their widows, to establish markers or monuments upon the battlefields of the country commemorative of the services of Louisiana soldiers on such fields, to maintain a memorial hall in New Orleans for the collection and preservation of relies and memo- rials of the late civil war, and for levee purposes, as hereinafter provided.
Art. 228. The power to tax corporations and corporate property , shall never be surrendered nor suspended by act of the General Assembly.
Art. 229. The General Assembly may levy a license tax. and in such case shall graduate the amount of such tax to be collected from the persons pursuing the several trades, professions, vocations, and callings. All persons, associations of persons and corporations pur- suing any trade, profession, business or calling, may be rendered liable to such tax, except clerks, laborers, elergymen, school teach- ers, those engaged in mechanical, agrleulturat, horticultural, and
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mining pursuits, and manufacturers other than those of distilled, alcoholic or malt liquors, tobacco, cigars, and cotton seed oil. No political corporation sball impose a greater license tax than is im - posed by the General Assembly for State purposes. This restric- tion shall not apply to dealers in distilled, alcoholic or malt liquors.
The General Assembly shall have authority to provide that mu- nicipalities, levying license taxes equal in amount to those levied by police juries for parochial purposes, shall be exempted from the payment of such parochial licenses.
Art. 230. The following shall be exempt from taxation, and no other, viz .: All public property, places of religious worship, or burial, all charitable institutions, all buildings and property used exclusively for public monuments or historical collections, colleges and other school purposes, the real and personal estate of any pub- lic library, and that of any other library association used by or con- nected with such library, all books and philosophical apparatus and all paintings and statuary of any company or association kept in a publie hall; provided, the property so exempted be not leased for purposes of private or corporate profit and ineome. There shall also be exempt from taxation household property to the value of five hundred dollars. There shall also be exempt from parochial and municipal taxation for a period of ten years from the 1st day of January, 1900, the capital, machinery and other property employed in mining operations, and in the manufacture of textile fabrics, yarns, rope, cordage, leather, shoes, harness, saddlery, hats, cloth- ing, flour, machinery, articles of tin, copper and sheet iron, agri- cultural implements, and furniture and other articles of wood, mar- ble or stone; soap, stationery, ink and paper, boat building and fer- tilizers and chemicals; provided. that not less than five hands are employed in any one factory ; provided, that nothing herein contained shall affect the exemptions provided for by existing constitutional provisions.
There shall also be exempt from taxation for a period of ten years from the date of its completion any railroad or part of such railroad that may hereafter be constructed and completed prior to January 1, 1904; provided, that when aid has heretofore been voted by any parish, ward, or municipality to any railroad not yet con- structed, such railroad shall not be entitled to the exemption from taxation herein established, unless it waives and relinquishes such aid or consents to a resubmission of the question of granting such aid to a vote of the property taxpayers of the parish, ward, or mu- nicipality, which has voted the same, if one-third of such property taxpayers petition for the same within six months after the adop- tion of this Constitution.
And provided, further, that this exemption shall not apply to double tracks, sidings, switches, depots or other improvements or betterments, which may be constructed by railroads now in opera- tion within the State, other than extensions or new lines constructed by such railroads ; nor shall the exemption hereinabove granted ap- ply to any railroad or part of such railroad, the construction of which
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was begun and the roadbed of which was substantially completed at the date of the adoption of this Constitution.
The property or real estate belonging to any military organization of the State of Lonisiana which is used by the State National Guard or militia for military purposes, such as arsenals or armories, while so used, shall be exempt from taxation.
Art. 231. The General Assembly shall levy an annual poll tax of one dollar upon every male inhabitant in the State between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, for the maintenance of the public schools in the parishes where collected.
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