Page:North Carolina Constitution (2018).pdf/6



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

The Senate shall be composed of 50 Senators, biennially chosen by ballot.

The Senators shall be elected from districts. The General Assembly, at the first regular session convening after the return of every decennial census of population taken by order of Congress, shall revise the senate districts and the apportionment of Senators among those districts, subject to the following requirements:


 * (1) Each Senator shall represent, as nearly as may be, an equal number of inhabitants, the number of inhabitants that each Senator represents being determined for this purpose by dividing the population of the district that he represents by the number of Senators apportioned to that district;


 * (2) Each senate district shall at all times consist of contiguous territory;


 * (3) No county shall be divided in the formation of a senate district;


 * (4) When established, the senate districts and the apportionment of Senators shall remain unaltered until the return of another decennial census of population taken by order of Congress.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of 120 Representatives, biennially chosen by ballot.

The Representatives shall be elected from districts. The General Assembly, at the first regular session convening after the return of every decennial census of population taken by order of Congress, shall revise the representative districts and the apportionment of Representatives among those districts, subject to the following requirements:


 * (1) Each Representative shall represent, as nearly as may be, an equal number of inhabitants, the number of inhabitants that each Representative represents being determined for this purpose by dividing the population of the district that he represents by the number of Representatives apportioned to that district;


 * (2) Each representative district shall at all times consist of contiguous territory;


 * (3) No county shall be divided in the formation of a representative district;


 * (4) When established, the representative districts and the apportionment of Representatives shall remain unaltered until the return of another decennial census of population taken by order of Congress.

Each Senator, at the time of his election, shall be not less than 25 years of age, shall be a qualified voter of the State, and shall have resided in the State as a citizen for two years and in the district for which he is chosen for one year immediately preceding his election. NC Constitution