PATERSON, N.J. -- A self-proclaimed witch donned a white gown and shiny gold cape Thursday and cast a 'tax-cut spell' on the city of Paterson.

Joyce Luciano, known as the 'official witch of Paterson,' was joined in her noon incantation by about 100 city residents and employees.

The audience gathered around a table that Ms. Luciano set up in the city's public safety complex and lustily chanted 'Peace, Prosperity and Love,' at the urging of the blond witch.

'The louder you say it, the higher the vibes,' she told the crowd as white candles burned on the table. 'It's a tax-cut spell.

Taking into account Paterson's size, she asked for the help of residents in her effort to lower the city tax rate, currently $8.66 per $100 assessment.

For seven days, beginning Thursday residents on the west side of Main Street were asked to burn a gold candle from 8 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Residents who live east of Main Street were told to burn a green candle.

Ms. Luciano planned to simultaneously recite tax cut incantations.

Some of the opposition at the time could be outrageous—and unconstitutional. In Wyoming a rogue state senator, J.W. Myers, proposed an amendment to the 19-year-old vote requiring all voters to met military grooming standards. "If we're going to give these youngsters voting privileges, they should look like citizens," Myers insisted. Their hair should be "at a length and grooming to meet standards prescribed by the military service." A Montana state senator, Joseph B. Reber, made the same claim. If young people are going to vote, "they should get a shave and a haircut and be like the rest of us."

Although Myers's amendment may have started as a joke, the Wyoming Senate initially passed it before finally removing it. "Young people in Wyoming were not laughing. They were embarrassed. They were shocked," wrote Philip White, the editor of the Branding Iron, the student newspaper at the University of Wyoming. Making appearance a qualification for suffrage was unconstitutional, and Myers knew it. Neither hair, clothing, nor skin color could be taken into consideration for determining voting rights, White explained. Young people wanted the vote. "But we will not stand to be judged by the length of our hair." In the end the controversy subsided, and the Vote 19 referendum would go before the state's electorate in November 1970.