were introduced: H.J.R. 3 and S.J.R. 3 to lower the minimum to 18, and S.J.R. 27 to lower it to 19. H.J.R. 3 was twice reported favorably by the committee, but the proposal was never brought to the floor. In the 1959 session each house received a resolution and in each the resolutions died in committee.

West Virginia

Constitutional amendments to lower the voting age to 18 were introduced in the legislature in 1943, 1945, 1949, 1951, and 1953. In the first three sessions the measures died in committee. In 1951, on March 6, an attempt to discharge the committee in the house failed, 40 to 48. In 1953 the house committee reported favorably, but no further action was taken. We have no record of legislative action after 1953.

Wisconsin

A constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18 was introduced in the legislature in 1943. It was adopted by the assembly as J.R. 30 by a vote of 55 to 29, but failed to gain clearance from the senate committee. In 1945, a similar resolution was rejected by the assembly committee. In 1947, under the designation Jt. Res. 18,A, the proposal to lower the voting age passed through an intricate maze of parliamentary maneuvers ending in a 48-44 vote to pass. The majority not being a constitutional one, the measure failed. In 1951 an 18-year-old voting age proposal was rejected by a senate committee, and in 1953 an assembly measure to lower the limit to 19 was unfavorably reported.

Wyoming

In 1951, Gov. Frank A. Barrett asked the legislature to lower the minimum voting age to 18. A measure was introduced and defeated. We have no record of any other legislative action.

SUMMARY

Table I lists the five States in which the question of lowering the voting age has been put to the electorate. In two, Georgia and Kentucky, the question was approved. In three, Idaho, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, it was defeated.

Table II lists the 14 States in which, in addition to those in table I, at least one house of the legislature has approved a proposal to lower the voting age by the required constitutional majority.

TABLE II.-States in which at least a single house of the legislature has voted

SOURCES

Arnall, Ellis. Admitting youth to citizenship. State government, Oct. 1943: 203-204.

Kellock, Harold. Voting in 1944. Editorial research reports, Aug. 6, 1943: 87-88.

Lincoln, Gould. The political mill. Washington evening star, July 10, 1943: 7.

Packman, Martin. Eighteen-year-old and soldier voting. Editorial research reports, Feb. 24, 1954: 143–159.

The question of lowering the voting age to 18. Congressional digest, March, 1954: 71-72.

State Government news. July 1958-Feb. 1961.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Granting citizens who have attained the age of eighteen the right to vote. Hearings *

June 2

and July 13, 1953. U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1953.

- Library of Congress. State Law Index.

SPECIFICATIONS FOR A MODEL

STATE PRESIDENTIAL

PRIMARY LAW

By

PAUL T. DAVID

Reprint No. 11

WASHINGTON 6, D.C.

April 1956

1956 By

The Brookings Institution

This reprint of a memorandum prepared by a member of the staff of the Brookings Institution is issued for general distribution.

The interpretations and conclusions in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of other members of the Brookings staff or of the administrative officers of the Institution.

The Brookings Institution is an independent organization engaged in research and education in the social sciences. Its principal purposes are to aid in the development of sound public policies and to provide advanced training for students in the social sciences.

PROPOSED SPECIFICATIONS FOR

A PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY SYSTEM IN FLORIDA

Paul T. David

Statement Prepared at the Request of
Mr. William A. F. Stephenson, St. Petersburg,
Florida, January 24, 1955

The basic proposal is for the type of system in which the voter is required to make only one choice and one mark in order to vote the presidential primary ballot. The voter would choose among slates of delegates. But the specifications that follow could be expected to give the voter in each party a frequent choice between candidates for the presidential nomination as an aspect of his choosing between groups of candidates for delegate. In its basic structure, the proposed system contemplates and assumes that occasionally there may be a desirable candidate for President who is unwilling to campaign openly for the nomination, and who may have to be drafted if he is to be nominated at all.

1. The presidential primary would be a closed primary; voters would be allowed to vote only the ballot of the political party in which they are registered.

Comment: This would be unlike the Wisconsin presidential primary, but like most of the others.

2. The ballot would carry organized slates of delegates; no would-be delegate would be allowed to run for election as an individual, but only as a part of an organized slate that includes a full list of candidates for delegate-at-large, together with a full quota of district delegates in at least half of the congressional districts of the state.

Comment: The proposal for carrying slates that are organized and run as a unit but which need not be complete for all congressional districts is new. Oftentimes a group with strength in one part of a state is unable to complete its ticket in other parts of the state. The 1952 Kefauver delegation ticket in Ohio, for example, was incomplete but won state-wide and in most of the districts where it was filed. In California, the Kefauverites had great difficulty in completing their slate in order to qualify; and after President Truman withdrew and the regular organization had to refile its delegation, it was unable to complete

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