Even as late as the '90's five
State Constitutions were adopted, suffrage clause and all, by State
Legislatures or constitutional conventions without the referendum.[B]
[Footnote A: New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania,
North Carolina, Georgia, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Vermont, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee,
Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri and
Arkansas.]
[Footnote B: Many reconstruction constitutions also but these were not
permanent. The five constitutions in the 90's were Mississippi, South
Carolina, Delaware, Louisiana and Virginia, and Kentucky made changes
after the constitution had been submitted.]
In the other states universal male suffrage came easily at a time
when thinly populated states wanted to hold out inducements to male
immigrant labor. To-day any male once naturalized, and in some states
before he is naturalized, becomes automatically a voting citizen of
any state in the Union after he has fulfilled the state residence
requirements and, in some states, an educational requirement.
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