quired and often residence within the official district, especially in the case of city officers.

§ 12. Age. Statutory provision is usually made excluding those under age from holding office, and for the more important offices the constitutions frequently require a greater age than a bare majority. At the common law it would seem that one under age could hold a ministerial office, but not one requiring the exercise of discretion, and it has been held that in the absence of statute a minor can hold such an office as that of notary.

§ 13. Sex. The common provision that only voters shall be eligible to office excludes women from office where male suffrage prevails. By the common law it would seem that women were generally ineligible to office except that of queen, unless the duties of the office could be performed by a deputy. The tendency at the present time, however, is to extend their right to hold offices, especially those of a local nature; and the less important offices in the Federal government, such as postmaster and pension agent, have frequently been held by women.

§ 14. Property. Property qualifications, although common in England and of frequent occurrence in the earlier history of this country, are now uncommon here. A number of constitutions forbid them altogether, but where there are no constitutional restrictions they are occasionally to be found. Thus in the case of State v. McAllister (11) it was urged that the section in the state constitution providing that no person except a citizen entitled to vote should be elected or appointed to any office,

by their name, nor by the presence or absence of an official designation, but by the nature of the functions devolved upon them" (9).

SECTION 2. ELIGIBILITY TO OFFICE.

§ 10. When qualifications must exist. The question frequently arises whether qualifications for office must exist at the time of election or appointment, as well as at the time of taking office. In the case of State v. Sullivan (10) Sullivan had received a majority of votes for county attorney, but had never declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States until after election, notwithstanding that citizenship or a declaration of intention to become a citizen was a qualification for holding office. His contention was that, although a necessary qualification for holding office, it was not necessary to an election. The court, however, referred to Webster's dictionary in which eligible" is defined as "proper to be chosen; qualified to be elected," and showed its common derivation with "electable," the meaning of which, the court said, was more obvious but not different. This case is in accord with the majority rule, although in a number of states it has been held that the qualifications need exist only at the commencement of the term of office.

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§ 11. Citizenship and residence. It is a common provision that an officer must be a citizen or have declared his intention to become such, or else these qualifications may follow from a requirement that he be a voter. Residence within the state for a certain period is also commonly re

(9) State v. Kennon, 7 Ohio St. 557.

quired and often residence within the official district, especially in the case of city officers.

§ 12. Age. Statutory provision is usually made excluding those under age from holding office, and for the more important offices the constitutions frequently require a greater age than a bare majority. At the common law it would seem that one under age could hold a ministerial office, but not one requiring the exercise of discretion, and it has been held that in the absence of statute a minor can hold such an office as that of notary.

§ 13. Sex. The common provision that only voters shall be eligible to office excludes women from office where male suffrage prevails. By the common law it would seem that women were generally ineligible to office except that of queen, unless the duties of the office could be performed by a deputy. The tendency at the present time, however, is to extend their right to hold offices, especially those of a local nature; and the less important offices in the Federal government, such as postmaster and pension agent, have frequently been held by women.

§ 14. Property. Property qualifications, although common in England and of frequent occurrence in the earlier history of this country, are now uncommon here. A number of constitutions forbid them altogether, but where there are no constitutional restrictions they are occasionally to be found. Thus in the case of State v. McAllister (11) it was urged that the section in the state constitution providing that no person except a citizen entitled to vote should be elected or appointed to any office,

by implication prevented the legislature from requiring councilmen to be freeholders, but the court held that the section in question merely restricted officeholders to a certain class and did not in any way prevent the legislature from requiring other qualifications as well.

§ 15. Religious or political belief. Most of the constitutions forbid "tests" for the holding of office, and these have been construed to forbid political or religious qualifications. The attempt to secure the nonpartisan character of certain boards has given rise to the interesting cases of Attorney General v. Board of Councilmen (12) and Rogers v. Buffalo (13). In the first case a law of Michigan had provided for the appointment of a board of commissioners of registration and election, two members whereof were to be from each of the two leading political parties in the city. The court held that the effect of the statute was to make party adhesion a condition of office and that, if obeyed, it would put all but the two favored parties beyond the possibility of representation, and accordingly held it unconstitutional. In the second case the civil service law of New York provided for the appointment of three persons as civil service commissioners, not more than two of whom should be adherents of the same party. The attempt was made to apply the reasoning of the preceding case on the ground that, after two appointments were made from one party, the political faith of members of the same party would prevent their appointment to the third office, but the court

(12) 58 Mich. 213.

held, as long as there was no discrimination against those not party members, nor against any party, and all within the same party were treated alike, that the statute could not be considered to impose a political test and was constitutional.

§ 16. Crime. A common punishment for crime is disqualification for office and in a Pennsylvania case (14) it was held that the article of the Pennsylvania Constitution providing that a candidate for office "guilty" of bribery, fraud, or wilful violation of any election law should be forever disqualified from office, did not require a convic tion by regular criminal proceedings to work the disqualification, but that the fact of guilt could be determined in a quo warranto proceeding to try the title to the office. Bad character alone is not sufficient to disqualify one for office, although the civil service laws very generally make provision against the appointment of persons who habitually use intoxicating liquors to excess or are guilty of notoriously disgraceful or infamous conduct and often provide for a certificate of good moral character (15).

§ 17. Holding other office. Where two offices exist under the same government and are incompatible, the holding of the first does not usually render the holder ineligible to the second, but the acceptance of the second vacates the first. Incompatible offices are therefore properly treated elsewhere (§§ 67-68, below). But where the law provides, for instance, that one person shall not hold more than one lucrative office and a person

(14)

Commonwealth v. Walter, 83 Pa. St. 105.