Esler v. Walters

I would have thought that a cornerstone of democracy is universal suffrage. Antithetical to this belief is a pecuniary or propertied qualification for voting, for it seems obvious that one’s influence in government should bear no relation to such a consideration.

It was in deference to this credo that this court some 10 years ago, in Matter of Wright v Town Bd. of Town of Carlton (33 NY2d 977, affg 41 AD2d 290), a case foursquare with the one before us now, declared a section of the Town Law which, for present purposes, cannot be differentiated from the one whose constitutionality we now…