Amendment to the Constitution imposing
these three limitations upon the power of the several States, was
by necessary implication, a declaration that the States had the
power to regulate by a uniform rule the conditions upon which the
elective franchise should be exercised by citizens of the United
States resident therein. The limitations specified in the XV.
Amendment exclude the conclusion that a State of this Union,
having a government republican in form, may not prescribe
conditions upon which alone citizens may vote other than those
prohibited. It can hardly be said that a State law which excludes
from voting women citizens, minor citizens, and non-resident
citizens of the United States, on account of sex, minority, or
domicil, is a denial of the right to vote on account of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude.

It may be further added that the 2d section of the XIV.
Amendment, by the provision that "when the right to vote at any
election for the choice of electors of President and
Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress,
or executive and judicial officers of the State, or the members
of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male
inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, a
citizen of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for
participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which
the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number
of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State," implies
that the several States may restrict the elective franchise as to
other than male citizens. In disposing of this question effect
must be given, if possible, to every provision of the
Constitution. Article 1, section 2, of the Constitution provides:

That the House of Representatives shall be composed of
members chosen every second year by the people of the
several States, and the electors in each State shall have
the qualifications requisite for electors of the most
numerous branch of the State Legislature.

This provision has always been construed to vest in the several
States the exclusive right to prescribe the qualifications of
electors for the most numerous bran