Page:The Federal and state constitutions v2.djvu/546

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The powers of the government shall be divided into three separate departments, the legislative, the executive, including the administrative, and the judicial; and no person charged with official duties under one of these departments shall exercise any of the functions of another, except as in this constitution expressly provided.

The legislative power of this State shall be vested in the general assembly, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives.

The senators and representatives shall be chosen annually, by the qualified electors of the respective counties or district for which they are chosen, on the first Monday of August, for one year, and their term of office shall commence on the first day of January next thereafter.

There shall be elected at the first election twenty senators and sixty representatives, and the number afterwards shall be regulated by law.

No person shall be eligible to the office of senator or representative who shall not possess the qualifications of an elector.

No person holding office under the authority of the United States, or any lucrative office under the authority of this State, shall be eligible to, or have a seat in, the general assembly; but this provision shall not extend to township officers, justices of the peace, notaries public, postmasters, or officers of the militia.

Each house, except as otherwise provided in this constitution, shall choose its own officers, determine its own rule of proceeding, punish its members for disorderly conduct, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member, but not the second time for the same cause; and shall judge of the qualification, election, and return of its own members, and shall have all other powers necessary for its safety and the undisturbed transaction of business.

Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings and publish the same. The yeas and nays on any question shall, at the request of two members, be entered on the journal.

Any member of either house shall have the right to protest against any act or resolution thereof; and such protest and reason therefor shall, without alteration, commitment, or delay, be entered on the journal.

All vacancies which may occur in either house shall, for the unexpired term, be filled by election as shall be prescribed by law.

Senators and representatives shall in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during the session of the general assembly, and in going to and returning from the same; and for words spoken in debate they shall not be questioned in any other place.