Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/89

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CUBAN CORRESPONDENCE.

Soldiers and sailors serving in the army or navy shall not be allowed to vote while sp serving.

The same suspension is ordered as regards those serving under similar circumstances in other armed bodies depending on the State, province, or municipality.

Art. II. The following persons shall not be voters:

(1) Those who by an unappealable sentence have been condemned to perpetual deprivation of political rights and public offices, although they may have been pardoned, unless they have previously obtained personal rehabilitation by means of a law.

(2) Those who, by an unappealable sentence, have been condemned to imprisonment, unless they have obtained rehabilitation at least two years before their enrollment in the census.

(3) Those who, having been condemned to other penalties by an unappealable sentence, shall not furnish evidence that they have served out those penalties.

(4) Bankrupts, not rehabilitated according to law, and who do not furnish documentary evidence that they have met all their obligations.

(5) Debtors to public funds as second tax payers.

(6) Those who are inmates of charitable institutions, or who are administratively authorized, at their request, to ask for public charity.

Chapter II.—Of the electoral census.

Art. 3. In order to exercise the right of suffrage, it is necessary that the person be inscribed in the electoral census; that is to say, the register containing the names and the paternal and maternal surnames, where they exist, of the Spanish citizens who have a right to vote.

The census is permanent, and shall be amended only by the annual revision.

Art. 4. The taking, revision, custody, and inspection of the census shall be under the charge, in accordance with their respective powers, of the central board established by the law of June 26, 1890, concerning provincial boards and of municipal boards, which shall be styled the electoral census boards.

The provincial boards shall sit in the capitals of each province, and the municipal boards shall sit in each municipality. They shall all be of a permanent character.

The provincial boards shall be presided over by the judges of the superior court (audencia) of such province as may be designated by the president of the superior district court to which that audencia belongs; and the municipal boards (shall be presided over) by the judges of first instance, or, in their absence, by public officers selected for that purpose by the president of the superior court of the province.

The number of the members of the provincial boards shall be fifteen, and the presence of nine members shall be requisite for deliberation or for taking action.

The following persons shall be members of the provincial boards:

(1) The president and the vice-president of the deputation concerned,

(2) The senior ex-president of the same deputation residing in the province.

(3) Four taxpayers chosen by lot from among those paying the first assessment of the land tax, who are residents of the province.

(4) Four taxpayers chosen by lot from among those paying the first assessment of the industrial tax, who are residents of the province.

(5) Four residents of the province, furnishing proof by means of official documents, of their professional or academic character.

The substitutes for the taxpayers shall be eight persons residing in the province and paying the largest assessments of the land tax, and eight persons residing in the province and paying the largest assessments of the industrial tax, and the substitutes of the residents having official titles shall be persons possessing the same qualifications as are required of them. They shall all be chosen by lot.

The choice by lot of the taxpayers, professional men and their substitutes shall be made publicly before the superior court of each province by the presiding judge of that court.

The following persons shall be members of the municipal boards:

(1) The alcalde (mayor) and the syndic of the city council.

(2) The municipal judge and the municipal attorney.

(3) Ex-alcaldes residing in the municipal district.

(4) Four of the chief payers of the land tax, and four of the chief payers of the industrial tax, residing in the municipal district.

(5) Four residents of the municipal district, furnishing proof, by means of official documents, of their professional or academic character.

The taxpayers and professional men shall be chosen by lot by the president of the municipal board, at a public meeting, before the city council, in the manner prescribed for the provincial boards.

The substitutes shall be chosen at the same time and in the same manner.