TAKING OF POLLS PROHIBITED

Section 302: (A) Provides that no person within or without the armed forces shall poll any member of such forces with reference to his choice of or his vote for any candidate.

(Sec. 314 (a) of existing law with "either under the provisions of this title or" deleted in view of the omission of the Federal ballot.)

(B) Provides a definition of the word "poll" as any verbal or written request for information which requires or implies the necessity for an answer, where the request is made with the intent of compiling the result of the answers either for personal use or for reporting the same to any person or in any form.

(Sec. 314 (b) of existing law.)

(C) Provides the penalty for any person not a member of the armed forces who violates the provisions of this section as a $1,000 fine or imprisonment for 1 year, or both.

(Sec. 314 (c) of existing law.)

DEFINITIONS

Section 401: (A) Defines the term "secretary of state" as meaning an official other than the secretary of state wherever such official is the appropriate state official to carry out any function vested in the secretary of state under this act. (Restatement of sec. 315 of existing law.)

(B) Defines "United States" as used geographically in the act as including only the territorial limits of the several States and the District of Columbia.

(Sec. 403 (1) of existing law.)

(C) Defines the term "merchant marine" of the United States as including: (1) Persons employed as officers or members of crews of vessels documented under United States laws, of vessels owned by the United States, or of vessels of foreign-flag registry under charter to or control of the United States.

(2) Persons enrolled with United States for employment on such vessels. (3) Persons enrolled with United States for training for employment on such vessels.

(4) Persons maintained for emergency relief service on any of the vessels in (1) above.

and as excluding any persons so employed, enrolled for employment or for training, or maintained for emergency relief service on the Great Lakes or the inland waterways.

(Restatement of sec. 403 (2) of existing law incorporating suggestions in par. 40 of the Secretary of War's report to the United States War Ballot Commission, S. Doc. 6, 79th Cong., pp. 59-60).

APPROPRIATIONS

Section 402: Authorizes such appropriations as may be necessary to carry out the act. (Sec. 401 of existing law.)

FREE POSTAGE

Section 403 Extends the free air-mail privilege in the United States mails to official post cards, ballots, voting instructions and envelopes referred to in the act, whether transmitted individually or in bulk, providing that in order to be entitled to free air-mail privilege a State balloting unit must not exceed a total weight of 1 ounce.

(Based on sec. 402 of existing law and suggestion No. VIII, p. 72, of the Secretary of War's report to the United States War Ballot Commission, and appendix G, p. 34, of the Commission's report, S. Doc. 6, 79th Cong.)

ADMINISTRATION

Section 404 Provides that the Secretaries of War and Navy shall be responsible for the administration of this act with respect to members of the armed forces of the United States and civilians outside the United States officially attached to and serving with the armed forces, the Secretary of the Treasury with respect to the Coast Guard when operating under the Treasury Department and civilians outside the United States officially attached to and serving with the Coast Guard,

and the Administrator of the War Shipping Administration with respect to members of the merchant marine of the United States. It further provides that any of these officers may delegate to one or more of the others, with his or their consent, any of his functions under the act.

(Based on sec. 305 (a) and sec. 308 (last sentence) of existing law. Adds the administrative responsibility of the Secretary of the Treasury with respect to the Coast Guard and attached civilians overseas, as well as broadening the delegative powers to include all of the officers (not only the Administrator as in the existing law).)

SEPARABILITY

Section 405: Provides that if any rovision of the act is held invalid, the validity of the remainder will not be affected.

(Sec. 404 of existing law.)

ACT TO BE CONSTRUED LIBERALLY

Section 406: Provides that the act shall be construed liberally in order to effectuate its purposes.

(Sec. 317 of existing law.)

The CHAIRMAN. For the benefit of those present and the members of the committee, the proposed bill would provide for absentee voting solely by State ballots by servicemen and certain others both in war and in peace. It continues the use of the Federal post-card application for State ballots and continues the free air-mail privilege for official post cards and ballot material. It does away with the Federal ballot and with the United States War Ballot Commission. Numerous recommendations similar to those in the existing law are made to the States as a guide to providing a more effective opportunity for servicemen and certain others to vote by State ballot. The bill also provides the steps to be taken by appropriate Federal agencies to cooperate with the States in facilitating voting by State absentee ballot. Safeguards to the secrecy of the ballot and freedom from coercion are provided, and polls of members of the armed forces as to their choice of any candidate are prohibited.

That is, gentlemen, as nearly as I can express it, what the bill provides the elimination of the Federal ballot and the Federal Ballot Commission.

Mr. COMBS. Since I have not had a chance to read the summary or study the bill, I take it from what you have said that all the bill does is to lay down the means by which the States can extend the privilege of the ballot to the members of the armed services, and does not attempt to fix a Federal balloting system.

The CHAIRMAN. That is correct.

Mr. VURSELL. May I ask you this: It substantially follows practically every provision of the law with regard to the voting by absentee ballot, as was incorporated in the Seventy-seventh Congress, is that right?

The CHAIRMAN. That is correct.

Mr. VURSELL. In other words, there may be some little changes, probably, which were recommended by Colonel Cutler, about the envelopes being made so they did not stick together in a salubrious climate, and so forth; but it leaves the law substantially as written with the exception of expunging the Federal ballot provisions in title II, III, and IV.

The CHAIRMAN. It is my understanding that that is correct, and it eliminates all of the objections that were in the last bill passed by the House.

Mr. VURSELL. May I inquire, do you have a recommendation for the elimination of the Federal ballot from the Chairman of the Conference of Secretaries of State of the various 48 States? I do know that Congressman Ellsworth had a communication from them. He wrote them a letter and asked if they had any recommendations, and in convention assembled they recommended the doing away with the Federal ballot because it was very difficult for the States to cooperate under the plan as set up between the various States and the War Ballot Commission. If it is necessary, we could get that letter and incorporate it in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. If you so move, it will be incorporated in the record at this point.

Mr. VURSELL. I move it be incorporated, and I will secure a recommendation from the Secretary of the Secretaries of State organization for incorporation in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, it can be incorporated at this point in the record.

(The following is the resolution :)

[Resolution No. 2]

Whereas the National Association of Secretaries of State convened in session in the city of New Orleans October 11, 12, and 13, 1945, and therein gave full and complete consideration and discussion to the subject of soldier and sailor voting; and

Whereas the several Secretaries of State charged with the responsibility of conducting elections in their respective States summarized their experiences in the 1944 elections; and

Whereas the States have amply provided voting facilities for the complete State ballot, which includes Federal as well as State and local offices: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the National Association of Secretaries of State, That this association wishes to express its sincere appreciation to the War Ballot Commission, and the Army, Navy, and Shipping Administration, through its personnel; be it further

Resolved, That the Congress of the United States be informed that by motion duly made, seconded and carried, the National Association of Secretaries of State recommends that any Federal legislation on servicemen voting be enacted, if at all, not later than March 1, 1946, and that such legislation retain the use of the free air-mail service in transmitting the ballot material to and from the service man and the local State election officials, and that such legislation eliminate the use of the Federal ballot.

I hereby certify that I am Secretary of the National Association of Secretaries of State, and that the above resolution is a true and correct copy of resolution adopted by the association on October 13, 1945.

WADE O. MARTIN, Jr., Secretary.

Mr. LECOMPTE. A year ago, when we passed the bill that we are partly repealing now, we maintained the provision for suspension of poll tax and registration insofar as we could. That is not touched in this bill, is it?

Mr. COMBS. Let me put this in the record at this point. In my own State of Texas, the legislature, at its last session, passed a statute

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exempting members of the armed services from payment of poll tax, as a requirement for voting. I do not know to what extent that has happened in other States.

Mr. LECOMPTE. That point came up frequently in debate on the floor of the House, and the statement was made by both sides that insofar as we could, we had suspended registration and poll tax for men and women in the armed services. Now, the question of whether the Federal Government could suspend poll tax might be a matter for the courts to decide, but we did what we could to suspend it.

The CHAIRMAN. That is right.

This bill continues the various and sundry recommendations that were included in the last bill to the States.

Mr. MANASCO. Mr. Chairman, as I recall, the original bill left the decision to the States as to qualification of voters.

The CHAIRMAN. That is correct.

Mr. MANASCO. And we did not make any attempt in that bill to change the system of registration.

Mr. LECOMPTE. I do not know that we could. Did not Georgia change the age for voting?

Mr. COMBS. Yes. They now vote at 18.

Mr. LECOMPTE. There is nothing in the Federal Constitution that fixes the age, so far as I have ever been able to find.

Mr. MANASCO. Senator Kilgore introduced an amendment the other day to reduce the voting age to 18.

As I understand the bill, Mr. Chairman, there are certain recommendations to the States, but there is nothing in the law itself that is mandatory. It is up to the States, then, to try to cooperate.

The CHAIRMAN. That is absolutely correct. There is nothing binding on the States as to the recommendations in this bill.

Mr. VURSELL. As I recall, we provided in the other bill touching on this particular point that it was not necessary for registration of any one in the armed services in order to vote, and as I understand it now, in this bill we have not changed title I at all. We go to the floor of the House, if this bill is reported out, in the same position we went before, with the long ballot, with title I in, which gave all of the protection that could be given to get away from this poll tax thing, and we did successfully get away from it so far as men were in the armed services, and this bill is written only for the purpose of continuing that situation for men in the armed services, and, of course, it incorporates certain other people that are attached with the armed services. Is that right, Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. That is my understanding.

Mr. MANASCO. It does away with the so-called Federal ballot, the short ballot. That is the main objective of this bill.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, Colonel Willis, of the War Department, is very familiar with every phase of the bill as it is written. He collaborated with both Senator Green and myself and others who represent the various services who will be charged with carrying out the bill as written, and I think at this point it would be good for us to hear the colonel and ask questions. Colonel, will you give us a résumé ?

STATEMENT OF LT. COL. E. S. WILLIS, LEGISLATIVE LIAISON
DIVISION, WAR DEPARTMENT

Colonel WILLIS. I might identify myself, for the record.
The CHAIRMAN. If you will.

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Colonel WILLIS. I am Lt. Col. E. S. Willis of the Legislative Liaison Division of the War Department, Special Staff. In 1944 I was assistant to Col. (now Brig. Gen.) Robert Cutler, and worked with him all through 1944 on this soldier voting. I have with me Maj. B. B. Miller, who is The Adjutant General's representative for soldier voting. At the end of 1944 the Office of Coordinator for Soldier Voting, which was Colonel Cutler, was abolished, and it was transferred to The Adjutant General, and Major Miller is his representative on that.

I also have with me, in case I need any assistance, Lt. Col. E. C. Courtney, from the Army Postal Service.

The CHAIRMAN. There are also present representatives of the Navy and Coast Guard.

Colonel WILLIS. And Post Office and War Shipping Administration.

Colonel WILLIS. Mr. Chairman, we did not have time to prepare a report on the House bill, but I do have here with me the Secretary of War's report on S. 1876.

The CHAIRMAN. And, for the benefit of the record, the bills are identical?

Colonel WILLIS. Yes, sir. If you wish, I will read the War Department's report. I think it explains the bill and also the War Department's position.

Colonel WILLIS. This is addressed, of course, to Senator Green, as chairman of the Senate committee [reading]:

The War Department has carefully considered S. 1876, Seventy-ninth Congress, "A bill to facilitate voting by members of the armed forces and certain others absent from the place of their residence, and to amend Public Law 712, Seventyseventh Congress, as amended," as referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate.

The bill proposes to amend the Federal servicemen's voting law which was in effect during elections in 1944 and 1945 and which was passed to facilitate absentee voting in time of war by members of the armed forces and certain civilians. The proposed legislation provides for operation of certain provisions relating to State absentee balloting procedures irrespective of the existence of a war, and eliminates entirely the provisions of the present law authorizing the use of the supplementary Federal ballot. It further incorporates in its provisions: certain administrative changes to the present law, most of which are based on specific recommendations or suggestions contained in the Report of the Secretary of War to the United States War Ballot Commission, dated December 26, 1944, and in the Report of the United States War Ballot Commission to the Congress, Certain other provisions relate to situadated January 26, 1945, both of which reports are printed in Senate Document 6, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session. tions encountered by the War Department in administering the present law during 1944, which situations were described or mentioned in the report of the Secretary of War, but concerning which, such report offered no specific solution therefor. Specifically S. 1876 amends the present law by striking out titles II, III, and IV, and inserting in lieu thereof new titles II, III, and IV.

Title II of S. 1876 retains the principal features of title II of Public Law 712, Seventy-seventh Congress, as amended, related to voting by State absentee ballot.