This basic purpose and policy would be frustrated if individuals in the military service who were former residents of another state could choose and change their voting residence while stationed in Texas. Moreover, the very purpose of the disfranchisement of military personnel for so long, and the obvious purpose of restricting the vote of a Texas resident to the county in which he resided at the time he entered in the military service, was to prevent a concentration of military voting strength in areas where military bases are located. Such a construction would, in effect, create a discrimination against residents of the state. As before mentioned, no member of the regular military establishments could vote in Texas prior to the 1954 amendment, and it is not reasonable to say that the Legislature in submitting the amendment, and the people in their favorable vote thereon, intended to free from all restrictions based on military service those persons who had entered such service as residents of another state, but to restrict those persons entering military service as residents of Texas to the right to vote in the county in which *306 they resided at such time. To so narrowly construe the amendment would be inconsistent with the history of the provisions of the Texas Constitution with respect to the exercise of suffrage by persons in military service. We do not regard this as a reasonable or plausible construction of the amendment. Relator argues that the intent of the 1954 amendment was to enfranchise all members of the Armed Forces but to restrict only the voting residence of those individuals entering the military service from Texas to the county of their residence in other words, says Relator, a former nonresident may choose and change his voting residence in Texas, a privilege denied to original residents of Texas. The self-evident purpose of the amendment to the Constitution was to prevent a person entering military service as a resident citizen of a county in Texas from acquiring a different voting residence in Texas during the period of his military service, and to prevent a person entering military service as a resident citizen of another state from acquiring a voting residence in Texas during the period of military service. "Any member of the Armed Forces of the United States or component branches thereof, or in the military services of the United States, may vote only in the county in which he or she resided at the time of entering such service so long as he or she is a member of the Armed Forces." As relevant here, this amendment for the first time enfranchised members of the regular military forces of the United States to the following extent: Pursuant to proper legislative action, there was submitted in 1954, and adopted by a vote of the people, an amendment to Suffrage Article VI of the Constitution of Texas, Vernon's Ann.St. This included both native residents and former nonresidents. Prior to 1954, and for over a hundred and twenty years, the Constitution of Texas disqualified members of the regular military establishments of the United States from voting in this state. These Respondents have informed Relator that he will not be permitted to vote because of the opinion of the Attorney General of Texas, dated November 6, 1963, holding that a former non-resident in the position of Relator may not vote in Texas. Rash, is Chairman of the Republican Party Executive Committee of El Paso County and the Respondent, Margaret Hockenberry is the Presiding Judge of the precinct in which Relator would vote. Relator desires to vote in the Republican Party Primary Election to be held on May 2, 1964. He says that El Paso County is his legal residence, and we assume that such is the case. He has purchased a home in El Paso, pays taxes in El Paso, registers his automobile in El Paso, and has purchased a poll tax in El Paso. He has been stationed at White Sands, New Mexico, and has resided in El Paso County, Texas, since February, 1962. He entered the military service in 1946, at which time he was a resident of Alabama. Carrington, is a sergeant in the United States Army. This proceeding presents for decision the question of whether a nonresident at the time of entering the regular military service of the United States can acquire a voting residence in Texas so long as he is in the military service. Peticolas, Luscombe & Stephens, Wayne Windle, Jr., El Paso, with above firm, for relator.
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