People ex rel. Ahrens v. English

Citations

• 139 Ill. 622
• 15 L.R.A. 131

Syllabus

<p>1. Elections—whether women may be authorized by statute to vote for county superintendent of schools. The act entitled “An act to entitle women to vote at any election held for the purpose of choosing any officer under the general or special school laws of this State,” approved June 19,1891, does not confer upon women, although they are citizens of the United States and above the age of twenty-one years, the right and privilege of voting at an election for county superintendent of schools, and the act, so far as it attempts to do so, is in violation of the constitution, and void.</p> <p>2. Eleotobs—qualifications prescribed by the constitution. Where the constitution has fixed the qualifications of electors, such qualifications can not be changed or added to by the legislature, or otherwise than by an amendment of the constitution. The legislature has no-power to confer the elective franchise upon other classes than those to whom it is given by the constitution.</p> <p>3. The constitutional qualification of electors is applicable, at least, in all cases of an election held for an officer who is mentioned or provided for in the constitution, unless it is indicated by that instrument that such officer may be otherwise elected or appointed, or that the legislature or some other body may determine by whom such officer may be elected or appointed.</p> <p>4. Constkuotion OE statutes—meaningless words rejected as surplusage. An act prescribing the qualifications of women to vote, required that female voters should belong to one or another of the three classes mentioned in article 7 of the constitution, the third of which embraces male citizens of the United States above the age of twenty-one years, thereby, by reference, copying such requirement into the act: Held, that the word “male” was repugnant to the act, and entirely inconsistent with its scope and design, and therefore the word “male” was to be rejected as meaningless.</p> <p>5. The evident intention of the legi