Chap. 400.—An ACT extending the right of suffrage to women; assessing a
State capitation tax on certain women residents of Virginia; and prescrib-
ing the qualifications of women entitled to vote for members of the general
assembly and all officers elective by the people, and the manner in which
women may register and vote; also providing when this act shall take
effect. [S B 325]

Approved March 20, 1920.

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as
follows: In addition to the male persons who are or may be qualified
under the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia to
vote for members of the general assembly and all officers elective by
the people, every female citizen of the United Stats, twenty-one years
of age, who has been a resident of the State two years, of the county,
city or town one year, and of the precinct in which she offers to vote
thirty days next preceding the election in which she offers to vote,
has been registered, and has paid her State poll taxes as hereinafter
required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the general assembly
and all officers elective by the people; but removal from one precinct
to another in the same county, city or town shall not deprive any
woman of her right to vote in the precinct from which she has moved,
until the expiration of thirty days after such removal.

Sec. 2. After this act shall become effective, every female citizen
of the United States, having the qualification of age and residence
required by the preceding section of this act, shall be entitled to
register, provided:

First: If she offers to register in the year in which this act be-
comes effective, has personally paid to the proper officer one dollar
and fifty cents in satisfaction of the poll tax assessed or assessable
against her for the next succeeding year; or if she offers to register
in the year succeeding the year in which this act becomes effective,
has personally paid the State poll tax assessed or assessable against
her for that year; or if she offers to register in the second year suc-
ceeding the year in which this act becomes effective, has personally
paid all State poll taxes assessed or assessable against her for the
preceding year; or if she offers to register. in the third year succeed-
ing the year in which this act becomes effective, has personally paid
the State poll taxes assessed or assessable against her for the twe
years next preceding the year in which she offers to register; or if
she offers to register in the fourth year succeeding the year in which
this act becomes effective, or thereafter, has personally paid all State
poll taxes assessed or assessable against her under this act for the
three years next preceding that in which she offers to register; or if
she come of age at such time that no poll tax shall have been assess-
able against her for the year preceding the year in which she offers
to register, has personally paid one dollar and fifty cents in satisfac-
tion of the first year’s poll tax assessable against her; and,

Second: That, unless physically unable, she make application to
register in her own handwriting, without aid, suggestion or memo-
randum, in the presence of the registration officers, stating therein her
mame, age, date and place of birth, residence and occupation at the
time and for two years next preceding, and whether she has previ-
ously voted, and, if so, the State, county, and precinct in which she
voted last; and, - . ,

Third: That she answer on oath any and all questions affecting
her qualifications as an elector, submitted to her by the officers of reg-
istration, which questions, and her answers thereto, shall be reduced to
writing, certified by the said officers, and preserved as a part of their
official records. | '

Sec. 3. Any person registered under the foregoing provisions of
this act shall have the right to vote for members of the general assem-
bly and all officers elective by the people, subject to the following
conditions : "

That she shall as a prerequisite to the right to vote after this act
becomes effective personally pay at least six months prior to the
election, all State poll taxes assessed or assessable against her under
this act during the three years next preceding that in which she offers
to vote, provided that she shall, unless physically unable, prepare and
deposit her ballot without aid, on such printed form as the law may
prescribe ; and, provided further, that the requirement that poll taxes
shall have been personally paid at least six months prior to the election
shall not apply to any election which may be held in the year in which
this act becomes effective, for which year no poll tax is levied, but
the payment of the poll tax for the year next succeeding the year in
which this act becomes effective at any time before thirty days next
preceding such election held in the year in which this act becomes
effective shall entitle her to vote in such election, if otherwise qual-
fed.

Sec. 4. There is hereby levied, for the year succeeding the year
in which this act becomes effective, and for every year thereafter, a
State capitation tax of one dollar and fifty cents on every female resi-
dent of the State not less than twenty-one years of age, one dollar of
which shall be applied exclusively in aid of the public free schools.
in proportion to the school population, and the residue shall be
returned and paid by the State into the treasury of the county or city
in which it was collected to be appropriated by the proper county or
city authorities to such county or city purposes as they shall respec-
tively determine ; but said State capitation tax shall not be a lien upon,
nor collected by legal process from, the personal property which may
be exempt from levy or distress under the poor debtor’s law. But
no woman shall be required to pay more than one State poll tax for
any one year, and any statutory provision in force on the day this
act takes effect requiring the payment of a State poll tax by women ts
hereby repealed.

Sec. 5. Each registrar shall register every female citizen of the
United State of his election district, who shall apply to be registered
under the provisions of this act, and who is entitled to be registered
under the said provisions, but no woman belonging to any of the
classes mentioned in section twenty-three of the Constitution of Vir-
ginia shall be permitted to register or vote, and section ninety-three
of the Code of Virginia, so far as applicable, shall be complied with.
Furthermore, before a registrar shall register the-name of any woman
as a voter under this act, he shall be satisfied of her qualifications as
hereinbefore prescribed, and every woman applying for registration
shall, before she is registered, take and subscribe to the following
oath: “T, --- ~~~ ~~ -----_------------------- , do solemnly swear
(or affirm) that I am entitled to register under the act of assembly ot
Virginia extending the right of suffrage to women, and that I am
not disqualified from exercising the right of suffrage by the said act.”
which oath, so subscribed, shall be filed with the registrar and pre-
served with the books of registration.

Sec. 6. All the provisions of law in any way concerning elections.
in so far as the same are not in conflict with this act, shall be applica-
ble to the registration-and voting of women in like manner and to
the same extent as they are now applicable to the registration and
voting of men.
Sec. 7. All acts or parts of acts in conflict with this act are to
that extent hereby repealed.

Sec. 8. This act shall not become effective until a proposed amend-
ment to the Constitution of the United States extending the right of
suffrage to women shall become a part of the Constitution of the
United States in the manner prescribed by law, if such proposed
amendment shall not become a part of the said Constitution until after
the expiration of ninety days from the adjournment of this session of
this general assembly ; but if such proposed amendment shall become
a part of the said Constitution before the expiration of said ninety
days, this act shall take effect ninety days after the adjournment of
this session of the general assembly.