Chapter XIII: Section 1: Every male person over the age of twenty-one years,

possessing the following qualifications, shall be entitled to vote at all elections:

_First_--He shall be a citizen of the United States, or not being a citizen of the United States, he shall have declared his intention, according to law, to become such citizen, not less than four months before he offers to vote.

_Second_--He shall have resided in the State six months immediately preceding the election at which he offers to vote, and in the county, city, town, ward or precinct, such time as may be prescribed by law: _Provided_, That no person shall be denied the right to vote at any school district election, nor to hold any school district office, on account of sex.

SEC. 2. The General Assembly shall, at the first session thereof, and may at any subsequent session, enact laws to extend the right of suffrage to women of lawful age, and otherwise qualified according to the provisions of this article. No such enactment shall be of effect until submitted to the vote of the qualified electors at a general election, nor unless the same be approved by a majority of those voting thereon.

SEC. 3. The General Assembly may prescribe, by law, an educational qualification for electors, but no such law shall take effect prior to the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety, and no qualified elector shall be thereby disqualified.

SEC. 4. For the purpose of voting and eligibility to office, no person shall be deemed to have gained a residence by reason of his presence, or lost it by reason of his absence, while in the civil or military service of the State, or of the United States, nor while a student at any institution of learning, nor while kept at public expense in any poor-house or other asylum, nor while confined in public prison.

SEC. 5. Voters shall in all cases, except treason, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning therefrom.

SEC. 6. No person except a qualified elector shall be elected or appointed to any civil or military office in the State.

SEC. 7. The general election shall be held on the first Tuesday of October, in the years of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy-six, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, and eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and annually thereafter on such day as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 8. All elections by the people shall be by ballot; every ballot voted shall be numbered in the order in which it shall be received, and the number be recorded by the election officers on the list of voters opposite the name of the voter who presents the ballot. The election officers shall be sworn or affirmed not to enquire or disclose how any elector shall have voted. In all cases of contested elections, the ballots cast may be counted, compared with the list of voters, and examined under such safeguards and regulations as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 9. In trials of contested elections, and for offenses arising under the election law, no person shall be permitted to withhold his testimony on the ground that it may criminate himself, or subject him to public infamy; but such testimony shall not be used against him in any judicial proceedings, except for perjury in giving such testimony.

SEC. 10. No person while confined in any public prison shall be entitled to vote; but every such person who was a qualified elector prior to such imprisonment, and who is released therefrom by virtue of a pardon, or by virtue of having served out his full term of imprisonment, shall, without further action, be invested with all the rights of citizenship, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution.

SEC. 11. The General Assembly shall pass laws to secure the purity of elections, and guard against abuses of the elective franchise.

SEC. 12. The General Assembly shall, by general law, designate the courts and judges by whom the several classes of election contests, not herein provided for, shall be tried, and regulate the manner of trial, and all matters incident thereto; but no such law shall apply to any contest arising out of an election held before its passage.

ARTICLE VIII.

STATE INSTITUTIONS.