Alien voting rights in
South Carolina
Constitution of South Carolina - March 19, 1778 (1)
An Act for establishing the constitution of the State of South Carolina.
XIII. (...)
The qualification of electors shall be that every free white man, and
no other person, who acknowledges the being of a God, and believes in a
future state of rewards and punishments, and who has attained to the
age of one and twenty years, and hath been a resident and an inhabitant
in this State for the space of one whole year before the day appointed
for the election he offers to give his vote at, and hath a freehold at
least of fifty acres of land, or a town lot, and hath been legally
seized and possessed of the same at least six months previous to such
election, or hath paid a tax the preceding year, or was taxable the
present year, at least six months previous to the said election, in a
sum equal to the tax on fifty acres of land, to the support of this
government, shall be deemed a person qualified to vote for, and shall
be capable of electing, a representative or representatives to serve as
a member or members in the senate and house of representatives, for the
parish or district where he actually is a resident, or in any other
parish or district in this State where he hath the like freehold.
Electors shall take an oath or affirmation of qualification, if
required by the returning officer. No person shall be eligible to sit
in the house of representatives unless he be of the Protestant
religion, and hath been a resident in this State for three years
previous to his election. The qualification of the elected, if
residents in the parish or district for which they shall be returned,
shall be the same as mentioned in the election act, and construed to
mean clear of debt. But no non-resident shall be eligible to a seat in
the house of representatives unless he is owner of a settled estate and
freehold in his own right of the value of three thousand and five
hundred pounds currency at least, clear of debt, in the parish or
district for which he is elected.
see also: C.
Blease Graham,
South Carolina’s Constitutions