District Courts.

Sec. 11. The district court shall have original jurisdiction of all causes, both at law and in equity, and such appellate jurisdiction as may be conferred by law. They shall have original jurisdiction to determine all controversies upon relation of any person on behalf of the people, concerning the rights, duties and liabilities of railroad, telegraph or toll-road companies or corporations.

Sec. 12. The State shall be divided into judicial districts, in each of which there shall be elected by the electors thereof, one or more judges of the district court therein, as may be provided by law, whose terms of office shall be six years; the judges of the district courts may hold courts for each other, and shall do so when required by law, and the General Assembly may, by law, provide for the selection or election of a suitable person to preside in the trial of causes in special cases.

Sec. 13. Until otherwise provided by law, said districts shall be four in number, and constituted as follows, viz.:

First District-The counties of Boulder, Jefferson, Gilpin, Clear Creek, Summit and Grand.

Second District-The counties of Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Weld and Larimer.

Third District-The counties of Park, El Paso, Fremont, Pueblo, Bent, Las Animas and Huerfano.

Fourth District. The counties of Costilla, Conejos, Rio Grande, San Juan, La Plata, Hinsdale, Saguache and Lake.

Sec. 14. The General Assembly may (whenever two-thirds of the members of each house shall concur therein) increase or diminish the number of judges for any district, or increase or diminish the number of judicial districts, and the judges thereof. Such districts shall be formed of compact territory, and bounded by county lines; but such increase, diminution or change in the boundaries of a district shall not work the removal of any judge from his office during the term for which he shall have been elected or appointed.

Sec. 15. The judges of the district court first elected shall be chosen at the first general election. The General Assembly may provide that, after the year eighteen hundred and seventyeight, the election of the judges of the supreme, district, and county courts, and the district attorneys, or any of them, shall be on a different day from that on which an election is held for any other purpose, and for that purpose may extend or abridge the term of office of any such officers then holding, but not in any case more than six months. Until otherwise provided by law, such officers shall be elected at the time of holding the general elections. The terms of office of all judges of the district court elected in the several districts throughout the State, shall expire on the same day; and the terms of office of the district attorneys elected in the several districts throughout the State shall, in like manner, expire on the same day.

Sec. 16. No person shall be eligible to the office of district judge unless he be learned in the law, be at least thirty years old, and a citizen of the United States, nor unless he shall have resided in the State or Territory at least two years next preceding his election, nor unless he shall, at the time of his election, be an elector within the judicial district for which he is elected; Provided, That at the first election any person of the requisite age and learning, and who is an elector of the territory of Colorado, under the laws thereof, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of judge of the district court of the judicial district within which he is an elector.

Sec. 17. The time of holding courts within the said districts shall be as provided by law, but at least one term of the district court shall be held annually in each county, except in such counties as may be attached, for judicial purposes, to another county, wherein such courts are so held. This shall not be construed to prevent the holding of special terms, under such regulations as may be provided by law.

Sec. 18. The judges of the supreme and district courts shall each receive such salary as may be provided by law, and no such judge shall receive any other compensation, perquisite, or emolument for or on account of his office, in any form whatever, nor act as attorney or counsellor at law.

Sec. 19. There shall be a clerk of the district court in each county wherein a term is held, who shall be appointed by the judge of the district, to hold his office during the pleasure of the judge. His duties and compensation shall be as `provided by law and regulated by the rules of the court.

Sec. 20. Until the General Assembly shall provide by law for fixing the terms of the courts aforesaid, the judges of the supreme and district courts, respectively, shall fix the terms thereof.

District Attorneys.

Sec. 21. There shall be elected by the qualified electors of each judicial district, at the general election in the year nineteen hundred and four, and every four years thereafter, a district attorney for such district, whose term of office shall be four years, and whose duties and salary or compensation, either from the fees or emoluments of his office or from the general county fund, as shall be [as] provided by law. No person shall be eligible to the office of district attorney who shall not, at the time of his election, be at least twenty-five years of age and possess all the qualifications of judges of the district courts, as provided in this Article. The term of office of the district attorneys serving in the several districts, at the time of the adoption of this amendment, is hereby extended to the second Tuesday of January, in the year A. D. 1905.

County Courts.

Sec. 22. There shall be elected at the general election in each organized county in the year nineteen hundred and four, and every four years thereafter, a county judge, who shall be judge of the county court of said county, whose term of office shall be four years, and who shall be paid such salary or compensation, either from the fees and emoluments of his office or from the general county fund, as shall be provided by law. The term of office of the county judges serving at the time of the adoption of this amendment is hereby extended to the second Tuesday of January, in the year A. D. 1905.

Sec. 23. County courts shall be courts of record and shall have original jurisdiction in all matters of probate, settlement of estates of deceased persons, appointment of guardians, conservators and administrators, and settlement of their accounts, and such other civil and criminal jurisdiction as may be conferred by law; Provided, Such courts shall not have jurisdic tion in any case where the debt, damage, or claim, or value of property involved, shall exceed two thousand dollars, except in cases relating to the estates of deceased persons.

Appeals may be taken from county to district courts, or to the supreme court, in such cases and in such manner as may be prescribed by law. Writs of error shall lie from the supreme court to every final judgment of the county court. No appeal shall lie to the district court from any judgment given upon an appeal from a justice of the peace.

Criminal Court.

Sec. 24. The General Assembly shall have power to create and establish a criminal court in each county having a population exceeding fifteen thousand, which court may have concurrent jurisdiction with the district courts in all criminal cases not capital; the terms of such courts to be as provided by law.

Justices of the Peace.

Sec. 25. Justices of the peace shall have such jurisdiction as may be conferred by law; but they shall not have jurisdiction of any case wherein the value of the property or the amount in controversy exceeds the sum of three hundred dollars, nor where the boundaries or title to real property shall be called in question.

Police Magistrates.

Sec. 26. The General Assembly shall have power to provide for creating such police magistrates for cities and towns as may be deemed from time to time necessary or expedient; who shall have jurisdiction of all cases arising under the ordinances of such cities and towns respectively.

Miscellaneous.

Sec. 27. The judges of courts of record, inferior to the supreme court, shall, on or before the first day of July in each year, report in writing to the judges of the supreme court such defects and omissions in the laws as their knowledge and experience may suggest, and the judges of the supreme court shall, on or before the first day of December of each year, report in writing to the Governor, to be by him transmitted to the General Assembly, together with his message, such defects and omissions in the Constitution and laws as they may find to exist, together with appropriate bills for curing the same.

Sec. 28. All laws relating to courts shall be general and of uniform operation throughout the State; and the organization, jurisdiction, powers, proceedings and practice of all the courts of the same class or grade, so far as regulated by law, and the force and effect of the proceedings, judgments and decrees of such courts severally, shall be uniform.

Sec. 29. All officers provided for in this article, excepting judges of the supreme court, shall respectively reside in the district, county, precinct, city or town for which they may be elected or appointed. Vacancies occurring in any of the offices provided for in this article shall be filled by appointment as follows: Of judges of the supreme and district courts, by the Governor; of district attorneys, by the judge of the court of the district for which such attorney was elected; and of all other judicial officers, by the Board of County Commissioners of the county wherein the vacancy occurs. Judges of the supreme, district and county courts appointed under the provisions of this section shall hold office until the next general election and until their successors elected thereat shall be duly qualified.

Sec. 30. All process shall run in the name of "The People of the State of Colorado;" all prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and by the authority of "The People of the State of Colorado," and conclude, “against the peace and dignity of the same."

ARTICLE VII.

Suffrage and Elections.

Section 1. Every person over the age of twenty-one years, possessing the following qualifications, shall be entitled to vote at all elections. He or she shall be a citizen of the United States, and shall have resided in the state twelve months immediately preceeding the election at which he offers to vote, and in the county, city, town, ward or precinct, such time as may be prescribed by law.

Sec. 2. The General Assembly shall, at the first session thereof, and may at any subsequent session, enact laws to extend the right of suffrage to women of lawful age, and otherwise qualified according to the provisions of this article. No such enactment shall be of effect until submitted to the vote of the

qualified electors at a general election, nor unless the same be approved by a majority of those voting thereon.

Sec. 3. The General Assembly may prescribe by law an educational qualification for electors; but no such law shall take effect prior to the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety (1890), and no qualified elector shall be thereby disqualified.

Sec. 4. For the purpose of voting and eligibilty to office, no person shall be deemed to have gained a residence by reason of his presence, or lost it by reason of his absence, while in the civil or military service of the State, or of the United States, nor while a student at any institution of learning, nor while kept at public expense in any poor-house or other asylum, nor while confined in public prison.

Sec. 5. Voters shall in all cases, except treason, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and in going to and returning therefrom.

Sec. 6. No person except a qualified elector shall be elected or appointed to any civil or military office of the State.

Sec. 7. The general election shall be held on the first Tuesday in October in the years of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy-six, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, and eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and annually thereafter on such day as may be prescribed by law.

Sec. 8. All elections by the people shall be by ballot; every ballot voted shall be numbered in the order in which it shall be received, and the number be recorded by the election officrs on the list of voters opposite the name of the voter who presents the ballot. The election officers shall be sworn or affirmed not to enquire or disclose how any elector shall have voted. In all cases of contested elections the ballots cast may be counted, compared with the list of voters, and examined under such safeguards and regulations as may be prescribed by law.

Sec. 9. In trials of contested elections and for offenses arising under the election law no person shall be permitted to withhold his testimony on the ground that it may criminate himself, or subject him to public infamy; but such testimony shall not be used against him in any judicial proceeding, except for perjury in giving such testimony.

Sec. 10. No person while confined in any public prison shall be entitled to vote; but every such person who was a qualified elector prior to such imprisonment, and who is released therefrom by virtue of a pardon, or by virtue of having served out his full term of imprisonment, shall, without further action, be invested with all the rights of citizenship, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution.

Sec. 11. The General Assembly shall pass laws to secure the purity of elections, and guard against abuses of the elective franchise.

Sec. 12. The General Assembly shall, by general law, designate the courts and judges by whom the several classes of