Chapter VI: Section 1: Every male person born in the United States, and every male

person who has been naturalized, twenty-one years of age, and possessing the qualifications set out in this article, shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people in the State, except as herein otherwise provided.

[Sidenote: Qualifications of elector.]

SEC. 2. He shall have resided in the State of North Carolina for two years, in the county six months, and in the precinct, ward or other election district, in which he offers his vote, four months next preceding the election: _Provided_, that removal from one precinct, ward or other election district, to another in the same county, shall not operate to deprive any person of the right to vote in the precinct, ward or other election district from which he has removed until four months after such removal. No person who has been convicted, or who has confessed his guilt in open court upon indictment, of any crime, the punishment of which now is or may hereafter be imprisonment in the State's Prison, shall be permitted to vote unless the said person shall be first restored to citizenship in the manner prescribed by law.

[Sidenote: Qualification of elector.]

[Sidenote: General Assembly to provide registration laws.]

SEC. 3. Every person offering to vote shall be at the time a legally registered voter as herein prescribed and in the manner hereafter provided by law, and the General Assembly of North Carolina shall enact general registration laws to carry into effect the provisions of this article.

[Sidenote: Qualifications of elector to register and vote.]

[Sidenote: Registration of persons entitled to vote without educational qualification.]

[Sidenote: Permanent record.]

SEC. 4. Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language; and before he shall be entitled to vote he shall have paid, on or before the first day of May of the year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax for the previous year as prescribed by Article V, sec. 1, of the Constitution. But no male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any State in the United States wherein he then resided, and no lineal descendant of any such person shall be denied the right to register and vote at any election in this State by reason of his failure to possess the educational qualifications herein prescribed: _Provided_, he shall have registered in accordance with the terms of this section prior to December 1, 1908. The General Assembly shall provide for the registration of all persons entitled to vote without the educational qualifications herein prescribed, and shall, on or before November 1, 1908, provide for making of a permanent record of such registration, and all persons so registered shall forever thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by the people in this State, unless disqualified under section 2 of this article: _Provided_, such person shall have paid his poll tax as above required.

[Sidenote: Amendment indivisible.]

SEC. 5. That this amendment to the Constitution is presented and adopted as one indivisible plan for the regulation of the suffrage, with the intent and purpose to so connect the different parts and to make them so dependent upon each other that the whole shall stand or fall together.

[Sidenote: Elections by people and General Assembly.]

SEC. 6. All elections by the people shall be by ballot, and all by the General Assembly shall be _viva voce_.

[Sidenote: Oath of office.]

SEC. 7. Every voter in North Carolina, except as in this article disqualified, shall be eligible to office, but before entering upon the duties of the office he shall take and subscribe the following oath:

"I, ____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina not inconsistent therewith, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as ____ So help me, God."

[Sidenote: Disqualification for office.]

SEC. 8. The following classes of persons shall be disqualified for office: _First_, all persons who shall deny the being of Almighty God. _Second_, all persons who shall have been convicted or confessed their guilt on indictment pending, and whether sentenced or not, or under judgment suspended, of any treason or felony, or of any other crime for which the punishment may be imprisonment in the penitentiary, since becoming citizens of the United States, or of corruption or malpractice in office, unless such person shall be restored to the rights of citizenship in a manner prescribed by law.

[Sidenote: When amendment to take effect.]

SEC. 9. That this amendment to the Constitution shall go into effect on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and two, if a majority of votes cast at the next general election shall be cast in favor of this suffrage amendment.

ARTICLE VII.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.

[Sidenote: County officers.]