A requirement that candidates for office have some prior service in
a lower office is not considered reasonable. \26\
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\26\ Wirtz v. Hotel, Motel and Club Employees Union, Local 6, 391
U.S. 492 at 504. The Court stated that the union, in applying such a
rule, ``* * * assumes that rank and file union members are unable to
distinguish qualified from unqualified candidates for particular offices
without a demonstration of a candidate's performance in other offices.
But Congress' model of democratic elections was political elections in
this Country, and they are not based on any such assumption. Rather, in
those elections the assumption is that voters will exercise common sense
and judgment in casting their ballots. Local 6 made no showing that
citizens assumed to make discriminating judgments in public elections
cannot be relied on to make such judgments when, voting as union members
* * *.''
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