OWENS, District Judge:
Plaintiff students at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, complain by class action that they and others similarly situated, all of whom profess to reside in Clarke County, Georgia, and to be eligible to register to vote in said county, are being treated discriminatorily different
by the Board of Registrars
of Clarke County, Georgia, than others not similarly situated who seek to register to vote. Deprivation of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection and Twenty-sixth Amendment voting constitutional rights is alleged, and redress is sought under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983.
Plaintiffs’ prayer for a preliminary injunction was heard by the court on Tuesday, September 5, 1972. Evidence was presented by the Plaintiffs and the Defendants. At the conclusion of the evidence and after hearing from counsel for the parties, the Court announced from the bench that the preliminary injunction sought by the plaintiffs was denied. This is to confirm and give reasons for that denial.
The facts as found by the Court show that the registrar’s office in Clarke County, Georgia, is usually staffed by one person whose title is Chief Registrar. During the preceding approximately eight and one-half years two women have held this position, and they both testified. The Chief Registrar interviews those who desire to register to vote, usually asking the questions set forth in Georgia Code Annotat
ed 84-609,
Ga.Laws 1964 Extra Session, pp. 26, 50; Ga.Laws 1969, p. 285; and other questions
such as what is your residence address, how long have you lived in the county and where are you employed, designed to give the questioner a preliminary indication of whether or not the applicant is qualified to register. If it appears that the applicant may not be qualified, the questioner generally asks further questions such as do you have a Georgia driver’s license;
if you drive a car, does it have a Georgia tag
and if it does, was it obtained in Clarke County?
When the applicant is a student, questions peculiarly
applicable just to students such as, “do you pay out of state tuition?” and, “where do you spend the summers?” are also sometimes asked. When such questions are asked, the students response is not necessarily determinative
of his right to register. The registrar considers the overall picture. There is no list of questions that are asked; the same questions are not asked of every person; the questions are propounded to each individual in accordance with the circumstances of his particular situation. Questioning is not confined to those who are students at the University of Georgia or to any other identifiable group. Indeed, about 90 per cent of those who apply to register are asked questions other than those specified by law.
The evidence showed that University of Georgia students can and do register to vote in Clarke County, Georgia. Neither plaintiffs nor defendants produced any numerical figures, but Plaintiff Lowry when asked how many students known to him (a) were, and (b) were not permitted to register, stated that he knew about ten students who were permitted and about ten students who were not permitted to register.
An individual who is not allowed to register to vote by a single Clarke County registrar may appear before the entire Board of Registrars. Of the plaintiffs only one person asked to appear; that appearance resulted in an affirmance by the Board of Registrars and a further appeal is now pending in the Superior Court of Clarke County. Other than the plaintiffs, of the unknown total number of persons who have applied and been denied the right to register to vote in Clarke County, only eight or nine have asked to appear before the Board of Registrars. No other appeals to the Superior Court were brought to the court’s attention.
The plaintiffs produced no evidence as to the policies of the Board of Registrars. In response to the court’s question the person who was chief registrar for about eight years stated that the Board of Registrars had no particular policy as to students and to her knowledge had never even discussed having a particular policy as to students.
The circumstances of the three plaintiff witnesses were each different — one student still possessing a Virginia driver’s license
said he had decided to live in Georgia — one student whose parents reside in another county in Georgia said that on week-ends and holidays when she leaves Athens she goes “home” to see her parents; she is registered to vote in that county but wants to transfer that privilege to Clarke County — another student was born in Georgia but thereafter on account of her father being in the armed forces has lived in many places. Her father presently is stationed in Virginia but is not registered to vote anywhere. She said that she has a Virginia driver’s license,
— that Georgia is the place that she has chosen as a permanent residence and that she came to school in Athens because of having decided to reside in Georgia. Each of these persons after questioning was denied the right to register to vote.
To maintain a class action the plaintiffs are required by Rule 23(a) to show that “(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.” The evidence did show that plaintiff students are two of at least 18,000 students at the University of Georgia. That any substantial number of those students con
sider themselves eligible to register to vote, or have attempted like individual plaintiffs to register and been refused, was not shown by the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs have thus failed to show the existence of a class and have failed to show the aforesaid four prerequisites. Since plaintiffs failed to comply with Rule 23 (a), it is unnecessary to determine whether or not Rule 23(b) is satisfied. In accordance with Rule 23(a), this court does hereby determine that this action is not to be maintained as a class action.
The evidence produced so far in this case shows only that the individual registrar, in questioning these individual plaintiffs, asked them various questions for the sole purpose of determining whether or not each individual plaintiff is a bona fide resident of the County of Clarke and the State of Georgia, and qualified to register to vote in said county and state.
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OWENS, District Judge:
Plaintiff students at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, complain by class action that they and others similarly situated, all of whom profess to reside in Clarke County, Georgia, and to be eligible to register to vote in said county, are being treated discriminatorily different
by the Board of Registrars
of Clarke County, Georgia, than others not similarly situated who seek to register to vote. Deprivation of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection and Twenty-sixth Amendment voting constitutional rights is alleged, and redress is sought under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983.
Plaintiffs’ prayer for a preliminary injunction was heard by the court on Tuesday, September 5, 1972. Evidence was presented by the Plaintiffs and the Defendants. At the conclusion of the evidence and after hearing from counsel for the parties, the Court announced from the bench that the preliminary injunction sought by the plaintiffs was denied. This is to confirm and give reasons for that denial.
The facts as found by the Court show that the registrar’s office in Clarke County, Georgia, is usually staffed by one person whose title is Chief Registrar. During the preceding approximately eight and one-half years two women have held this position, and they both testified. The Chief Registrar interviews those who desire to register to vote, usually asking the questions set forth in Georgia Code Annotat
ed 84-609,
Ga.Laws 1964 Extra Session, pp. 26, 50; Ga.Laws 1969, p. 285; and other questions
such as what is your residence address, how long have you lived in the county and where are you employed, designed to give the questioner a preliminary indication of whether or not the applicant is qualified to register. If it appears that the applicant may not be qualified, the questioner generally asks further questions such as do you have a Georgia driver’s license;
if you drive a car, does it have a Georgia tag
and if it does, was it obtained in Clarke County?
When the applicant is a student, questions peculiarly
applicable just to students such as, “do you pay out of state tuition?” and, “where do you spend the summers?” are also sometimes asked. When such questions are asked, the students response is not necessarily determinative
of his right to register. The registrar considers the overall picture. There is no list of questions that are asked; the same questions are not asked of every person; the questions are propounded to each individual in accordance with the circumstances of his particular situation. Questioning is not confined to those who are students at the University of Georgia or to any other identifiable group. Indeed, about 90 per cent of those who apply to register are asked questions other than those specified by law.
The evidence showed that University of Georgia students can and do register to vote in Clarke County, Georgia. Neither plaintiffs nor defendants produced any numerical figures, but Plaintiff Lowry when asked how many students known to him (a) were, and (b) were not permitted to register, stated that he knew about ten students who were permitted and about ten students who were not permitted to register.
An individual who is not allowed to register to vote by a single Clarke County registrar may appear before the entire Board of Registrars. Of the plaintiffs only one person asked to appear; that appearance resulted in an affirmance by the Board of Registrars and a further appeal is now pending in the Superior Court of Clarke County. Other than the plaintiffs, of the unknown total number of persons who have applied and been denied the right to register to vote in Clarke County, only eight or nine have asked to appear before the Board of Registrars. No other appeals to the Superior Court were brought to the court’s attention.
The plaintiffs produced no evidence as to the policies of the Board of Registrars. In response to the court’s question the person who was chief registrar for about eight years stated that the Board of Registrars had no particular policy as to students and to her knowledge had never even discussed having a particular policy as to students.
The circumstances of the three plaintiff witnesses were each different — one student still possessing a Virginia driver’s license
said he had decided to live in Georgia — one student whose parents reside in another county in Georgia said that on week-ends and holidays when she leaves Athens she goes “home” to see her parents; she is registered to vote in that county but wants to transfer that privilege to Clarke County — another student was born in Georgia but thereafter on account of her father being in the armed forces has lived in many places. Her father presently is stationed in Virginia but is not registered to vote anywhere. She said that she has a Virginia driver’s license,
— that Georgia is the place that she has chosen as a permanent residence and that she came to school in Athens because of having decided to reside in Georgia. Each of these persons after questioning was denied the right to register to vote.
To maintain a class action the plaintiffs are required by Rule 23(a) to show that “(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.” The evidence did show that plaintiff students are two of at least 18,000 students at the University of Georgia. That any substantial number of those students con
sider themselves eligible to register to vote, or have attempted like individual plaintiffs to register and been refused, was not shown by the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs have thus failed to show the existence of a class and have failed to show the aforesaid four prerequisites. Since plaintiffs failed to comply with Rule 23 (a), it is unnecessary to determine whether or not Rule 23(b) is satisfied. In accordance with Rule 23(a), this court does hereby determine that this action is not to be maintained as a class action.
The evidence produced so far in this case shows only that the individual registrar, in questioning these individual plaintiffs, asked them various questions for the sole purpose of determining whether or not each individual plaintiff is a bona fide resident of the County of Clarke and the State of Georgia, and qualified to register to vote in said county and state. These individual plaintiffs, in general, were not in any way treated differently from other persons who have sought to register and in particular were not singled out as students for any particular unusual treatment or for the application of any policies or procedures applicable just to students. As the Supreme Court of the United States has emphasized, the defendant registrars are “free to take reasonable and adequate steps, as have other States, to see that all applicants for the [right to register to] vote actually fulfill the requirements of bona fide residence. . . .” Carrington v. Rash, 380 U.S. 89, 96; 85 S.Ct. 775, 13 L.Ed.2d 675, 680 (1965). Defendant registrars and Georgia “. . . have the power to require that voters be bona fide residents of the relevant political subdivision. . . .” Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330, 92 S.Ct. 995, 31 L.Ed.2d 274 (1972). All of the steps taken by defendants were reasonable and adequate for these purposes and these purposes alone. Accordingly, the equal protection rights of these plaintiffs under the Constitution of the United States have not been violated.
See Bright v. Baesler, 336 F.Supp. 527 (E.D.Ky.1971). There is no evidence that unless enjoined defendants will violate plaintiffs constitutional rights. Plaintiffs are, therefore, not entitled to a preliminary injunction and it is denied.
It is hoped that the publication of this opinion will contribute to an understanding by these plaintiff students and others like them that they as students may decide to be bona fide residents of Athens and Clarke County and the State of Georgia, and to a further understanding that their decision to be residents carries with it all of the responsibilities imposed upon residents by Georgia law and all of the privileges granted residents by Georgia law, paramount among which is the right to register to vote.