=Educational Tests for Voters.=—Educational qualifications for voting, in one form or another, exist in nearly one-third of the states.[36] In some the requirement is that anyone who desires to be enrolled as a voter shall be able to write his name and also to read aloud any clause taken at random from the state constitution. Exemptions from this test are always granted to persons who by mere reason of physical disability are unable to read or write. Several of the Southern states have provided additional exemptions which result in excusing from the test all white persons who are unable to read and write while strictly applying the requirement to all colored applicants. [Sidenote: How educational tests are applied.] Various methods are employed to this end. In one case the provision is that no one may be registered as a voter unless he can read any clause in the state constitution or “give a reasonable interpretation thereof”. The white officials in charge of the registration then decide, in their own discretion, whether the interpretation is reasonable or not. In some other states the attempt has been made by what is commonly known as the “grandfather clause” to excuse from the literacy test all persons who had the right to vote before 1867, and all descendants of such persons. As there were no colored voters in any of the Southern states prior to this date the “grandfather clause” virtually establishes a racial discrimination which the Supreme Court, a few years ago, declared to be unconstitutional. =Is an Educational Test Desirable?=—In the majority of the states men and women are permitted to vote even though unable to read or write. The question is often asked whether this practice is wise. Would it be better to insist on an elementary educational qualification everywhere, or is it desirable that in a democracy no distinction be made between those who can read and those who cannot? [Sidenote: The arguments for and against educational tests.]