Page:The Federal and state constitutions v2.djvu/574

Rh county, city, or town in which he may offer to vote three months next preceding any election, shall have the qualifications of an elector, and be entitled to vote at all elections. And every male citizen of the United States, above the age aforesaid, who may be a resident of the State at the time that this constitution shall be adopted, shall have the right of voting as aforesaid; but no such citizen or inhabitant shall be entitled to vote except in the county in which he shall actually reside at the time of the election.

All voting by the people shall be by ballot.

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

No elector shall be obliged to do militia duty on the days of election, except in time of war or public danger.

No elector shall be deemed to have lost his residence in this State by reason of his absence on business of his own, or of the United States, or of this State.

No person employed in the military, naval, or marine service of the United States, stationed in this State, shall, by reason of his services therein, be deemed a resident of this State.

No person shall be elected or appointed to any office in this State, civil or military, who shall not be possessed of the qualifications hereinbefore prescribed for an elector.

The legislature shall have power to exclude from the privilege of voting, or being eligible to office, any person convicted of bribery, perjury, or other infamous crimes.

The first general election in this State shall be held on the day and year provided by this constitution, and all general elections thereafter on the day and year provided by subsequent legislative enactment.

The rule of taxation shall be uniform, and taxes shall be levied upon such property as the legislature shall, from time to time, prescribe.

The legislature shall provide for an annual tax sufficient to defray the estimated expenses of the government for each year; and whenever the expenses of any one year shall exceed the income, the legislature shall provide for levying a tax for the ensuing year sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency as well as the estimated expenses for such ensuing year.

For the purpose of defraying extraordinary expenditures, the State may contract public debts; but such debts, in the aggregate, shall never exceed five hundred thousand dollars. Every such debt shall be authorized by law for some purpose or purposes, to be distinctly specified therein, and a vote of a majority of all the members elected to both houses shall be necessary to the passage of such law, and such law shall provide for an annual tax to be levied sufficient to pay the interest of such debt created, and such appropriation shall not be repealed, nor the taxes postponed, until the principal and interest or such debt shall have been wholly paid. 7252— 2—07——22