Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1920 — VOTERS MUST GIVE RIGHT AGE [ARTICLE]

VOTERS MUST GIVE RIGHT AGE

State Election Board Decides Against Against the “21 Plus’’ Idea. Indianapolis, Sept. 10. —Women and men who registered last Saturday as being “21 years old, plus/’ instead of giving their specific ages, will be ineligible to vote In November unless they correct their statement on the next registration day, Oct. 4. This was the decision of the state election commissioners, one a Republican and one a Democrat, who met yesterday and prepared an Interpretation of the age feature of the registration law on request from several counties where many women and some men, ticklish about their age, went on record as being “21 plus.” Th® ©pinion is given by W. W. Spencer, Democrat, and William H. Thompson, Republican, who with the governor as the ex-offlclo member, comprise the state boartf of election commissioners. Maurice E. Tennant, as a member of the state board’s legal committee, also concurs In the opinion. It is the holding of the commissioners that the law requires each voter to give his or her exact age. They contend that the purpose of the requirement is to establish Identification of the voter as well as to ascertain that the voter Is of legal age. They assert that the giving of the wrong age might permit fraudulent voting. Should a man or woman of 50 years, for example, register as “21, plus,” it might be possible, suggest the commissioners, for some young voter to go to the polls and vote in the name of an older person who had given his or her name Incorrectly.