t

tion or a student in any institution of learning, be regarded as having either gained or lost a residence, as to the right of suffrage, by reason of his location or sojourn in such institution.

Sec. 25. The General Assembly shall provide for the annual registration of voters under section Twenty, for an appeal by any person denied registration, for the correction of illegal or fraudulent registration, thereunder, and also for the proper transfer of all voters registered under this Constitution.

Sec. 26. Any person who, in respect to age or residence, would be qualified to vote at the next election, shall be admitted to registration, notwithstanding that at the time thereof he is not so qualified, and shall be entitled to vote at said election if then qualified under the provisions of this Constitution.

Sec. 27. All elections by the people shall be by ballot; all elections by any representative body shall be viva voce, and the vote recorded in the journal thereof.

The ballot-box shall be kept in public view during all elections, and shall not be opened, nor the ballots canvassed or counted, in secret.

So far as consistent with the provisions of this Constitution, the absolute secrecy of the ballot shall be maintained.

Sec. 28. The General Assembly shall provide for ballots without any distinguishing mark or symbol, for use in all state, county, city, and other elections by the people, and the form thereof shall be the same in all places where any such election is held. All ballots shall contain the names of the candidates, and of the offices to be filled, in clear print and in due and orderly succession; but any voter may erase any name and insert another.

Sec. 29. No voter, during the time of holding any election at which he is entitled to vote, shall be compelled to perform military service, except in time of war or public danger; to attend any court as suitor, juror, or witness; and no voter shall be subject to arrest under any civil process during his attendance at election or in going to or returning therefrom.

Sec. 30. The General Assembly may prescribe a property qualification not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars for voters in any county or subdivision thereof, or city or town, as a prerequisite for voting in any election for officers, other than the members of the General Assembly, to be wholly elected by the voters of such county or subdivision thereof, or ty, or town; such action, if taken, to be had upon the initiative of a presentative in the General Assembly of the county, city or town fected: provided, that the General Assembly in its discretion may make

such exemptions from the operation of said property qualification as shall not be in conflict with the Constitution of the United States.

Sec. 31. There shall be in each county and city an electoral board, composed of three members, appointed by the circuit court of the county or the corporation court of the city, or the judge of the court in vacation. Of those first appointed, one shall be appointed for a term of one year, one for a term of two years, and one for a term of three years; and thereafter their successors shall be appointed for the full term of three years. Any vacancy occurring in any board shall be filled by the same authority for the unexpired term.

Each electoral board shall appoint the judges, clerks, and registrars of election for its county or city; and, in appointing judges of election, representation as far as possible shall be given to each of the two political parties which, at the general election next preceding their appointment, cast the highest and next highest number of votes.

No person, nor the deputy of any person, holding any office or post of profit or emolument, under the United States Government, or who is in the employment of such government, or holding any elective office of profit or trust in the State, or in any county, city, or town thereof, shall be appointed a member of the electoral board, or registrar, or judge of election.

Sec. 32. Every person qualified to vote shall be eligible to any office of the State, or of any county, city, town, or other subdivision of the State, wherein he resides, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, and except that this provision as to residence shall not apply to any office elective by the people where the law provides otherwise. Men and women eighteen years of age shall be eligible to the office of notary public, and qualified to execute the bonds required of them in that capacity.

Sec. 33. The terms of all officers elected under this Constitution shall begin on the first day of February next succeeding their election, unless otherwise provided in this Constitution. All officers, elected or appointed, shall continue to discharge the duties of their offices after their terms of service have expired until their successors have qualified.

Sec. 34. Members of the General Assembly and all officers, executive and judicial, elected or appointed after this Constitution goes into effect, shall, before they enter on the performance of their public duties, severally take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Virginia ordained by the Convention which assembled in the city of Richmond on the twelfth day of June, nineteen hundred and one, and that I will faith

t

I

1

fully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on according to the best of my ability; so help me

me as

God."

Sec. 35. No person shall vote at any legalized primary election for the nomination of any candidate for office unless he is at the time registered and qualified to vote at the next succeeding election.

Sec. 36. The General Assembly shall enact such laws as are necessary and proper for the purpose of securing the regularity and purity of general, local and primary elections, and preventing and punishing any corrupt practices in connection therewith; and shall have power, in addition to other penalties and punishments now or hereafter prescribed by law for such offences, to provide that persons convicted of them shall thereafter be disqualified from voting or holding office.

Sec. 37. The General Assembly may provide for the use, throughout the State or in any one or more counties, cities, or towns in any election, of machines for receiving, recording, and counting the votes cast thereat: provided, that the secrecy of the voting be not thereby impaired.

Sec. 38. After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and four, the treasurer of each county and city shall, at least five months before each regular election, file with the clerk of the circuit court of his county, or of the corporation court of his city, a list of all persons in his county or city, who have paid not later than six months prior to such election, the state poll taxes required by this Constitution during the three years next preceding that in which such election is held; which list shall be arranged alphabetically, by magisterial districts or wards, shall state the white and colored persons separately, and shall be verified by the oath of the treasurer. The clerk, within ten days from the receipt of the list, shall make and certify a sufficient number of copies thereof, and shall deliver one copy for each voting place in his county or city, to the sheriff of the county or sergeant of the city, whose duty it shall be to post one copy, without delay, at each of the voting-places, and, within ten days from the receipt thereof, to make return on oath to the clerk, as to the places where and dates at which said copies were respectively posted; which return the clerk shall record in a book kept in his office for the purpose; and he shall keep in his office for public inspection, for at least sixty days after receiving the list, not less than ten certified copies thereof, and also cause the list to be published in such other manner as may be prescribed by law; the original list returned by the treasurer shall be filed and preserved by the clerk among the public records of his office for at least five years after receiving the same. Within thirty days after the list has been so posted, any person who shall have paid his capitation tax,

but whose name is omitted from the certified list, may, after five days' written notice to the treasurer, apply to the circuit court of his county, or corporation court of his city, or to the judge thereof in vacation, to have the same corrected and his name entered thereon, which application the court or judge shall promptly hear and decide.

The clerk shall deliver, or cause to be delivered, with the poll-books, at a reasonable time before every election, to one of the judges of election of each precinct of his county or city, a like certified copy of the list, which shall be conclusive evidence of the facts therein stated for the purpose of voting. The clerk shall also, within sixty days after the filing of the list by the treasurer, forward a certified copy thereof, with such corrections as may have been made by order of the court or judge, to the Auditor of Public Accounts, who shall charge the amount of the poll taxes stated therein to such treasurer unless previously accounted for.

Further evidence of the prepayment of the capitation taxes required by this Constitution, as a prerequisite to the right to register and vote, may be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE III.

DIVISION OF POWERS.

Sec. 39. Except as hereinafter provided, the legislative, executive, and judiciary departments shall be separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belonging to either of the others, nor any person exercise the power of more than one of them at the same time.

ARTICLE IV.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

Sec. 40. The legislative power of the State shall be vested in a General Assembly, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Delegates.

Sec. 41. The Senate shall consist of not more than forty and not less than thirty-three members, who shall be elected quadrennially by the voters of the several senatorial districts, on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November.

Sec. 42. The House of Delegates shall consist of not more than one hundred and not less than ninety members, who shall be elected bi-enni

ally by the voters of the several house districts, on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November.

Sec. 43. The apportionment of the State into senatorial and house districts, made by the acts of the General Assembly, approved April the second, nineteen hundred and two, is hereby adopted; but a re-apportionment may be made in the year nineteen hundred and six, and shall be made in the year nineteen hundred and twelve, and every tenth year thereafter.

Sec. 44. Any person may be elected senator who, at the time of election, is actually a resident of the senatorial district and qualified to vote for members of the General Assembly; and any person may be elected a member of the House of Delegates who, at the time of election, is actually a resident of the house district and qualified to vote for members of the General Assembly. But no person holding a salaried office under the state government, and no judge of any court, attorney for the Commonwealth, sheriff, sergeant, treasurer, assessor of taxes, commissioner of the revenue, collector of taxes, or clerk of any court, shall be a member of either house of the General Assembly during his continuance in office, and the election of any such person to either house of the General Assembly, and his qualification as a member thereof, shall vacate any such office held by him; and no person holding any office or post of profit or emolument under the United States Government or who is in the employment of such government, shall be eligible to either house. The removal of a senator or delegate from the district for which he is elected, shall vacate his office.

Sec. 45. The members of the General Assembly shall receive for their services a salary to be fixed by law and paid from the public treasury; but no act increasing such salary shall take effect until after the end of the term for which the members voting thereon were elected; and no member during the term for which he shall have been elected, shall be appointed or elected to any civil office of profit in the State except offices filled by election by the people.

Sec. 46. The General Assembly shall meet once in two years on the second Wednesday in January next succeeding the election of the members of the House of Delegates and not oftener unless convened in the manner prescribed by this Constitution. No session of the General Assembly, after the first under this Constitution, shall continue longer than sixty days; but with the concurrence of three-fifths of the members elected to each house, the session may be extended for a period not exceeding thirty days. Except for the first session held under this Constitution, members shall be allowed a salary for not exceeding sixty days at