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CALIFORNIA

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

Right of Suffrage Guaranteed.

No Property Qualification Required of Electors.
Local and Special Laws Prohibited.

Secret Ballot Guaranteed.

Qualifications of Electors.

Disqualification of Certain Persons.

Legislature May Prescribe Additional Qualifications.
Residence for Voting Purposes Not Lost or Gained.

Recall.

Removal of County Seats.

Division of Counties.

Amendments to Constitution.

Submission of Several Amendments.

Revision or Amendment by Convention.

Submission of Revised Constitution to People.

ARTICLE I.

Right of Suffrage Guaranteed.

Sec. 19. No power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere with or prevent the free and lawful exercise of the right of suffrage.

That provision of the Direct Primary Law which requires a voter to vote for both first and second choice (Sess. Laws 1909, p. 196) is not in conflict with the above provision of the Constitution.

Adams vs. Lansdon, 18 Ida. 483; 110 Pac. 280.

Sec. 19, Art. 1 of the Constitution has reference to the attendance of officers, civil or military, at the polls, and prohibits them from interfering with the free and lawful exercise of the right of suffrage. Ib.

No Property Qualification Required of Electors.

Sec. 20. No property qualification shall ever be required for any person to vote or hold office except in school elections or elections creating indebtedness.

Cited: Pioneer Irrigation District vs. Walker, 20 Ida. 605; 119 Pac. 304. Ferbrache vs. Drainage District, 23 Ida. 85; 128 Pac. 553. Under the provisions of Sec. 20, Art. 1 of the Constitution, the legislature has the power and authority to prescribe a property qualification for any person to vote at an election creating an indebtedness.

Bissett vs. Pioneer Irrigation District, 21 Ida. 98; 120 Pac. 461.

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Municipal Bond Elections: This section authorizes the imposition, in a municipal charter, of a property qualification on the right to vote on a proposition for the incurrence of an indebtedness.

Wiggin vs. City of Lewiston, 8 Ida. 527; 69 Pac. 286.

ARTICLE III.

Local and Special Laws Prohibited.

Sec. 19. The Legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say:

Providing for and conducting elections, or designating the place of voting.

The local option law (Laws 1909, page 9) is not in conflict with the provisions of Art. 3, Sec. 19 of the Constitution.

Gillesby vs. Board, 17 Ida. 586, 598; 107 Pac. 71.

Secret Ballot Guaranteed.

ARTICLE VI.

Section 1. All elections by the people must be by ballot. An absolutely secret ballot is hereby guaranteed, and it shall be the duty of the legislature to enact such laws as shall carry this section into effect.

Cross Reference: See notes under Art. 6, Sec. 2.

Numbering Ballots: Under the provisions of Sec. 1, Art. 6, of the State Constitution, it would not be within the power of the legislature to authorize and direct the numbering of ballots to be used in an election.

McGrane vs. Nez Perce County, 18 Ida. 714; 112 Pac. 312.

There is no separate or distinct qualification provided by the Constitution for voters at elections held in counties, cities, villages or other municipalities. To all such elections, Secs. 1 and 2 of Art. 6 apply.

Pioneer Irrigation District vs. Walker, 20 Ida. 605, 612; 119 Pac. 304.

Qualifications of Electors.

Sec. 2. Except as in this article otherwise provided, every male or female citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old, who has actually resided in this state or territory for six months, and in the county, where he or she offers to vote, thirty days next preceding the day of election, if

registered as provided by law, is a qualified elector; and until otherwise provided by the legislature, women who have the qualifications prescribed in this article may continue to hold such school offices and vote at such school elections as provided by the laws of Idaho Territory.

Cross Reference: See notes under Art. 6, Sec. 1.

Cited: Powell vs. Spackman, 7 Ida. 693; 65 Pac. 503. Knight vs. Trigg. 16 Ida. 256; 100 Pac. 1060.

Registration: Sec. 2, Art. 6 of the Constitution of this State commits the subject of registration of voters entirely to the legislature, and fully authorizes the legislature to enact such registration law as it deems wise; provided, of course, such law in no way contravenes any constitutional right of the elector.

Gillesby vs. Board, 17 Ida. 586; 107 Pac. 71.

Property Qualification: Sec. 2448 of the Revised Codes is void as being in conflict with the provisions of Art. 6, Secs. 1 and 2, providing a property qualification for electors in drainage districts.

Ferbrache vs. District, 23 Ida. 85; 128 Pac. 553.

Registration Unnecessary: Registration is not a substantive qualification of an elector in this state. Registration is intended only as a regulation of the exercise of the right of suffrage and not as a qualification for such right. The terms "elector" and "qualified elector" are used interchangeably, and an elector is a qualified elector (Quarles, J., dissents).

Wilson vs. Bartlett, 7 Ida. 271; 62 Pac. 416.

Bond Elections: This section only prescribes the qualifications of a voter at a general election, and is not infringed by a provision of a municipal charter imposing a property qualification on the right to vote on the question of incurring a municipal indebtedness.

Wiggin vs. Lewiston, 8 Ida. 527; 69 Pac. 286.

Disqualifications: No disqualification to hold office on account of sex which may exist under this section, can be raised in a proceeding, instituted after the wrongful removal of the officer, to compel her to deliver the papers of the office to her alleged successor.

Village of Kendrick vs. Nelson, 13 Ida. 244; 89 Pac. 755.

Disqualification of Certain Persons.

Sec. 3. No person is permitted to vote, serve as a juror, or hold any civil office who is under guardianship, idiotic or insane, or who has, at any place, been convicted of treason, felony, embezzlement of the public funds, bartering or