Incapacity and incompe CHAPTER VIII. OBJECTION TO VOTERS ON GROUND OF PERSONAL OBJECTIONS on the part of voters to the right of voting, tency to vote. throwing at once the burthen of proving a qualification on the claimant, or person objected to, if qualification should be proved, and all the affirmative or positive requisites made necessary to perfect the claimant's right to registration be thereby so far supported and established, it will be incumbent on the objecting party in that case to prove some incapacity or incompetency to exercise the elective franchise, or enjoy the right of voting, in answer to the fact of qualification, in order to defeat the right to vote, if he cannot counteract the proof of qualification, or the title to be inserted in the list of voters. Grounds of both. Distinguish ed. It therefore becomes very material to know what constitutes incapacity or incompetency to vote, or what may be termed the personal disqualifications for the condition of electors of parliamentary representatives. The grounds of incapacity and of incompetency to vote are various in substance, nature, and degree. Incapacities are personal and legal, destroying and utterly extinguishing altogether the right, or rather the faculty and power, of voting. manent inca Such as are merely personal, are the natural inca- Personal perpacities of idiocy or permanently unsound mind and pacities deInsane persons, idiots, and women therefore stroying right sex. can never have a right to vote. British peerage is a political incapacity to voting at elections for members of Parliament. Those founded in common sense and usage are incapacities by common law. to vote. British Peerage. Some incapacities are merely legal, and declared Legal incapaby Statute. All persons convicted, in courts of law, of perjury, or subornation of perjury, or of bribery at elections, are rendered incapable of voting by the 2 Geo. 2, c. 24, s. 6, 7, and 11; and 9 Geo. 2, c. 28. All offences inducing infamy incapacitate. Wilful omission from the registry of voters for the space of two years, incapacitates persons having old qualifications for voting in boroughs from ever voting. 2 W. 4, c. 45, s. 33. These are permanent, and apply generally. cities. cy suspending Incompetency to vote is founded on legal or po- Incompetenlitical temporary disability, which does not destroy the right. the capacity of the party to vote, but merely suspends the privilege in his person until he shall become competent, or his competency shall be restored to him. Of these, some are general, and apply to all voters; others are particular, and apply some to voters for counties, and some to voters for cities or boroughs. Alien birth. Foreign allegiance. Exceptions to disqualification of alien birth. The general grounds of incompetency are, 2. Alien birth and duty of foreign allegiance, is a Exceptions. Denization by letters-patent. Naturalization by Act of Parliament. Service for two years on board British ships, 13 Geo. 2, c. 3, by virtue of royal proclamation, "all foreign Jews and Protestants, upon residing seven years in any of the American colonies, without being absent above two months at a time, and all foreign Protestants serving two years in a military capacity there, or being three years employed in the whale fishery, without afterwards absenting themselves from the king's dominions for more than one year," and none within the capacities declared by 4 G. 2, c. 21, shall be (upon taking the oaths of allegiance and supremecy, or in some cases, making an affirmation to the same effect,) "naturalised, to all intents and puposes as if they had been born in this kingdom;" except as to sitting in Parliament, or being of the Every foreigner and his family esta- 3. Nonage, or minority, renders every person Minority. under the age of twenty-one incompetent to vote till the day before the twenty-first 4. Commissioners, collectors, supervisors, gau- Officers of, and employed gers, or other officer or persons whatsoever, in EXCISE. concerned or employed in the charging, collecting, levying, or managing the duties of excise, or any branch or part thereof. 5. Commissioner, collector, comptroller, searcher, Customs. or other officer or person whatever concerned or employed in the charging, collecting, levying, or managing the customs, or any branch or part thereof. 6. Commissioner, officer, or other person em- Distribution ployed in collecting, receiving, or managing of stamps. Persons employed in respect of salt duties. Surveyors, &c. of window and house duty, Postmasters, &c. and persons in their employ. Captains, &c. of foreign post-office packets. any of the duties on stamped vellum, parchment, and paper. 7. Any person appointed by the commissioners for distributing of stamps; commissioner, officer, or other person employed in collecting, levying, or managing any of the duties on salt. 8. Surveyor, collector, comptroller, inspector, officer, or other person employed in collecting, managing, or receiving the duties on windows or houses. 9. Postmaster, postmasters-general, or his or their deputy or deputies, or any person employed by him, or under him or them, in receiving, collecting, or managing the revenue of the post-office, or any part thereof. 10. Captain, master, or mate of any ship, packet, or other vessel employed by or under the postmaster or postmaster-general in conveying the mail to and from foreign ports. 11. Any person who shall either during any election, or within six months previous to such election, or within fourteen days after it shall have been completed, be employed at such election as counsel, agent, attorney, poll-clerk, flagman, or in any other |