“ But the Constitution confers the right of suffrage directly on no one, so that there are no United States voters. This is a prerogative of the individual States, and they may exclude any number of persons on other grounds than race or color, such as illiteracy, lack of citizenship, nonpayment of taxes, etc., subject to the penalty of a reduction of representation in Congress.
The attainment of the twenty-first year of age is a qualification in every State. In a number of States women are allowed to vote in school elections and in several Western States they vote in State elections. ”

“ The States may and generally do require voters to register within certain periods as a means of preventing frauds at the election, and this requirement indirectly excludes some. Residence within the State and district for a certain period previous to the election is an almost universal requirement. Educational tests have long existed in Massachusetts and Connecticut and have been introduced in a number of the Southern States, as a result of which the suffrage has been practically restricted to the whites in Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama, and Virginia. ”

“ The other view regards it as the natural right of all adult male citizens. This was the doctrine of the eighteenth-century philosophy, but has been rejected by most States, suffrage having been restricted by them on some of the following bases: ownership of property, payment of taxes, educational attainments, moral character, residence, religious profession, etc. An almost universal rule has been to exclude women, children, lunatics, idiots, convicted criminals, and aliens from the exercise of the suffrage, although there have been and are still exceptions. ”