ARTICLE XVII-AMENDMENT

Direct Election of Senators.

The senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies; provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the constitution.

Adopted in lieu of the first paragraph of section 3 of article I, and also so much of paragraph two of the same section as relates to the filling of vacancies.

Right to Vote.

ARTICLE XIX-AMENDMENT

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Proclaimed by the secretary of state of the United States to be in effect August 26, 1920.

PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF OREGON RELATING TO ELECTIONS

§1. Elections Free.

ARTICLE II

SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS

All elections shall be free and equal.

To be "free" means that the voter shall be left to the untrammeled exercise, whether by civil or military authority, of his right or privilege; that is to say, no impediment or restraint of any character shall be imposed upon him, either directly or indirectly, whereby he shall be hindered or prevented from participation at the polls. The word "equal" has a different signification; every elector has the right to have his vote counted for all it is worth in proportion to the whole number of qualified electors desiring to exercise their privileges; so that the terms tree and equal, used as they are correlatively, signify not only that the election shall be open and untrammeled to all persons endowed with the elective franchise, but shall be closed to all not in the enjoyment of such privileges: Ladd v. Holmes, 40 Or. 178, 66 Pac. ¡14.

§ 2. Qualifications of Electors.

In all elections not otherwise provided for by this constitution, every citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who shall have resided in the state during the six months immediately preceding such election, shall be entitled to vote.

Note The foregoing amendment was submitted to the people by the legislative assembly and approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon at the general election held November 3, 1914. There were 164,879 votes cast for said amendment and 39,847 against, and under the provisions of law, by a proclamation of the governor dated December 3, 1914, the amendment took effect en said date.

§3. Idiots, Insane and Convicts.

No idiot or insane person shall be entitled to the privileges of an elector; and the privilege of an elector shall be forfeited by a conviction of any crime which is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary.

The term "conviction," as used here, is used in the primary and ordinary sense, and signifies proving or finding that the defendant is guilty either by the verdict of the jury, or his plea to that effect, and does not include the punishment which follows thereon. A crime is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary when by any law it may be so punished, and the fact that it also may be or is otherwise punished does not change its grade or character in this respect; hence where the punishment provided by statute for a certain crime was either imprisonment in the penitentiary, or a fine, and a person upon conviction by pleading guilty was punished by a fine, but not by imprisonment, he forfeited his right to vote under this provision of the constitution: United States v. Watkins, 6 Fed. 152.

The authority of this decision is perhaps voided by the amendment to section 1230, of 1895, which reads: "Felony is a crime which is punishable with death or by imprisonment in the penitentiary of this state. When a crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary is also punishable by a fine or imprisonment in the county jail in the discretion of the court, it shall be deemed a misdemeanor for all purposes after a judgment imposing punishment other than imprisonment in the penitentiary."

This section does not operate as a restriction on the pardoning power. Pardon by the governor restores to the person receiving it the privileges of an elector forfeited by the crime: Wood v. Fitzgerald, 3 Or. 575.

§4. Residence.

For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained cr lost a residence by reason of his presence or absence while employed in the service of the United States, or of this state; nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this state, or of the United States, or of

the high seas; nor while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any almshouse or other asylum at public expense; nor while confined in any public prison.

Though an employe of the United States, or of the state, does not gain or lose a residence by reason of his presence or absence in such service, he may, by appropriate steps, gain a residence at such point as he may desire independently of such employment: Wood v. Fitzgerald, 3 Or. 568.

§ 5. Soldiers, Seamen and Marines Not to Vote-Residence Of.

No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of the United States or of their allies, shall be deemed to have acquired a residence in the state in consequence of having been stationed within the same; nor shall any such soldier, seaman or marine have the right to vote.

§ 6. Negroes, Chinamen, Etc.

No negro, Chinaman or mulatto shall have the right of suffrage.

Negros or mulattoes born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof by virture of the fourteenth amendment are now citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside, and therefore, by virture of the fifteenth amendment, are entitled to the right of suffrage in this state the same as white persons; and the same is true of all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof: The Slaughterhouse Cases, 16 Wall. 71.

§7. Bribery at Elections.

Every person shall be disqualified from holding office during the term for which he may have been elected, who shall have given or offered a bribe, threat, or reward to procure his election.

A promise by a candidate for a county office to the voters of his county that if elected he will pay a certain part of the salary of the office into the county treasury, though very objectionable on the grounds of public policy, is not an offer of a bribe or reward within the meaning of this section, unless the voters sought to be influenced thereby are taxpayers of the county, or would in some way be benefited by the performance of the offer: State v. Dustin, 5 Or. 375.

§ 8. Elections Laws.

The legislative assembly shall enact laws to support the privilege of free suffrage prescribing the manner of regulating and conducting elections, and prohibiting under adequate penalties all undue influence therein from power, bribery, tumult and other improper conduct.

§ 9. Penalty for Dueling.

Every person who shall give or accept a challenge to fight a duel or who shall knowingly carry to another person such challenge or who shall agree to go out of the state to fight a duel shall be ineligible to any office or trust or profit.

§ 10. Lucrative Offices.

No person holding a lucrative office or appointment under the United States or under this state shall be eligible to a seat in the legislative assembly; nor shall any person hold more than one lucrative office at the same time, except as in this constitution expressly permitted; provided, that officers in the militia, to which there is attached no annual salary, and the office of postmaster where the compensation does not exceed $100 per annum, shall not be deemed lucrative.

The office of deputy collector of internal revenue is a "lucrative office" within the meaning of this section: Hermann's Case, Senate Journal, 1870, p. 32.

§ 11. Ineligibility to Office of Collector, When.

No person who may hereafter be a collector or holder of public moneys shall be eligible to any office of trust or profit, until he shall have accounted for and paid over, according to law, all sums for which he may be liable.

§ 12. Temporary Appointment to Office.

In all cases in which it is provided that an office shall not be filled by the same person more than a certain number of years continuously, an appointment pro tempore shall not be reckoned a part of that term. § 13. Privileges of Electors.

In all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace, electors shall be free from arrest in going to elections, during their attendance there and in returning from the same; and no elector shall be obliged to do duty in the militia on any day of election, except in time of war or public danger.

§ 14. Time of Holding Elections.

The regular general biennial election in Oregon for the year A. D. 1910 and thereafter shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. All officers except the governor, elected for a six year term in 1904 or for a four year term in 1906, or for a two year term in 1908, shall continue to hold their respective offices until the first Monday in January, 1911, and all officers, except the governor, elected at any regular general biennial election after the adoption of this amendment, shall assume the duties of their respective offices on the first Monday in January following such election. All laws pertaining to the nomination of candidates, registration of voters and all other things incident to the holding of the regular biennial election shall be enforced and be effected the same number of days before the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November that they have heretofore been before the first Monday in June biennially, except as may hereafter be provided by law.

Note The above section was proposed as an amendment by the legislative assembly (H. J.. R. No. 7), filed in the office of the secretary of state February 23, 1907, and adopted by a vote of the people, 65,728 for and 18,590 against, June 1, 1908. Under the provisions of law, by a proclamation of the governor, dated June 23, 1908, the amendment took effect on said date.

§ 14-a. Time of Holding Elections in Incorporated Cities and Towns.

Incorporated cities and towns shall hold their nominating and regular elections for their several elective officers at the same time that the primary and general biennial elections for state and county officers are held, and the election precincts and officers shall be the same for all elections held at the same time. All provisions of the charters and ordinances of incorporated cities and towns pertaining to the holding of elections shall continue in full force and effect except so far as they relate to the time of holding such elections. Every officer who, at the time of the adoption of this amendment, is the duly qualified incumbent of an elective office of an incorporated city or town shall hold his office for the term for which he was elected and until his successor is elected and qualified. The legislature, and cities and towns, shall enact such supplementary legislation as may be necessary to carry the provisions of this amendment into effect.

Note The foregoing section was proposed as an amendment by the legislative assembly (H. J. R. No. 22), filed in the office of the secretary of state February 20, 1917, and adopted by a vote of the people, 83,630 for and 42,296 against, June 4, 1917. Under the provisions of law, by a proclamation of the governor, the amendment took effect July 2, 1917.

§ 15. How Votes to Be Given.

In all elections by the legislative assembly, or by either branch thereof, votes shall be given openly or viva voce, and not by ballot forever, and in all elections by the people, votes shall be given openly or viva voce until the legislative assembly shall otherwise direct.

"Election," as here used, is equivalent to "appointment": State v. Compson, 34 Or. 33, 54 Pac. 349.

§ 16. Plurality Elects-Provision for Proportional Representation.

In all elections authorized by this constitution, until otherwise provided by law, the person or persons receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected, but provisions may be made by law for elections by equal proportional representation of all the voters for every office which is filled by the election of two or more persons whose official duties, rights and powers are equal and concurrent. Every qualified elector resident in his precinct and registered as may be required by law, may vote for one person under the title for each office. Provision may be made by law for the voter's direct or indirect expression of his first, second or additional choices among the candidates for any office. For an office which is filled by the election of one person it may be required by law that the person elected shall be the final choice of a majority of the electors voting for candidates for that office. These principles may be applied by law to nominations by political parties and organizations. Note The foregoing amendment was proposed by the people by initiative petition and approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon at the general election held June 1, 1908. There were 48,868 votes cast for the amendment, and 34,128 against; and under the provisions of law, by proclamation of the governor, dated June 23, 1908, the amendment took effect on said date.

§ 17. Place of Voting.

All qualified electors shall vote in the election precinct in the county where they may reside for county officers, and in any county in the state for state officers, or in any county of a congressional district in which such electors may reside for members of congress.

When an individual is a bona fide resident of a county, but has no fixed residence or domicile in any particular precinct therein, he may vote in any precinct in which he finds himself on the day of election: Wood v. Fitzger d 3 Or. 58.

Failure to vote for precinct officers raises no presumption that the voter was not a resident of the precinct: Van Winkle v. Crabtree, 34 Or. 462, 55 Pac. 831.

§ 18. Recall.

Every public officer in Oregon is subject, as herein provided, to recall by the legal voters of the state or of the electoral district from which he is elected. There may re required 25 per cent, but not more, of the number of electors who voted in his district at the preceding election for justice of the supreme court to file their petition demanding his recall by the people. They shall set forth in said petition the reasons for said demand. If he shall offer his resignation it shall be accepted and take effect on the day it is offered, and the vacancy shall be filled as may be provided by law. If he shall not resign within five days after the petition is filed, a special election shall be ordered to be held within twenty days in his said electoral district to determine whether the people will recall said officer. On the sample ballot at said election shall be printed, in not more than 200 words, the reasons for demanding the recall of said officer as set forth in the recall petition, and in not more than 200 words the officer's justification of his course in office. He shall continue to perform the duties of his cffice until the result of said special election