County Clerks are required to PRESERVE THIS PAMPHLET and to see that copies Misscuri. Laws, statutes, PTC. PROVISIONS OF THE ELECTION LAWS OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI PRESCRIBING THE QUALIFICATIONS AND DUTIES OF VOTERS AND ELECTION COMPILED FROM THE STATE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS, ELECTION LAWS OF MISSOURI. CONSTITUTION OF 1875. BILL OF RIGHTS. ARTICLE II. SEC. 9. Elections must be free and open.—That all elections shall be free and open; and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage. (a) EXECUTIVE OFFICERS. ARTICLE V. SEC. 2. Terms of office-Governor and treasurer ineligible to re-election-times of holding elections.-The term of office of the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, attorney-general and superintendent of public schools shall be four years from the second Monday of January next after their election, and until their successors are elected and qualified; and the governor and state treasurer shall be ineligible to re-election as their own successors. At the general election to be held in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six, and every four years thereafter, all of such officers, except the superintendent of public schools, shall be elected, and the superintendent of public schools shall be elected at the general election in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, and every four years thereafter. SEC. 3. Returns-tie, how determined.-The returns of every election for the above named officers (b) shall be sealed up and transmitted by the returning officers (c) to the secretary of state, directed to the speaker of the house of representatives, who shall, immediately after the organization of the house, and before proceeding to other business, open and publish the same, in the presence of a majority of each house of the general assembly, who shall for that purpose as (a) 41 Mo. 63. Poll-tax cannot be imposed for failure to vote. 136 Mo. 475. (b) See sec. 7018, R. S. '99, for list of the officers referred to. (c) The returning officers are the county clerks, and in St. Louis city, the board of election commissioners. 257223 semble in the hall of the house of representatives. The person having the highest number of votes for either of said offices shall be declared duly elected; but if two or more shall have an equal and the highest number of votes, the general assembly shall, by joint vote, choose one of such persons for said office. SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS. ARTICLE VIII. SECTION I. General elections, when held.-The general election. shall be held bienially on the Tuesday next following the first Monday in November. The first general election under this constitution shall be held on that day, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six; but the general assembly may, by law, fix a different day-two-thirds of all the members of each house consenting thereto. (a) SEC. 2. Electors, qualifications of.-Every male citizen of the United States, and every male person of foreign birth who may have declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States according to law, not less than one year nor more than five years before he offers to vote, who is over the age of twenty-one years, possessing the following qualifications, shall be entitled to vote at all elections. by the people: First He shall have resided in the state one year immediately preceding the election at which he offers to vote. Second-He shall have resided in the county, city or town where he shall offer to vote at least sixty days immediately preceding the election. (b) SEC. 3. Elections, how conducted and contested. 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 recorded by the election officers 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 disclose how any voter shall have voted, unless required to do so as witnesses in a judicial proceeding: Provided, that 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. (c) SEC. 4. Voters free from arrest, when.-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. 5. Registration in cities and counties.-The general assembly shall provide, by law, for the registration of all voters in cities and counties having a population of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, and may provide for such registration in cities having a (a) The omission to hold an election at a proper time cannot be supplied by a subsequent one not provided for by law. 43 Mo. 261. (b) "Citizen," as ordinarily used, means one entitled to vote. 92 Mo. 300; 137 Mo. 628, 636. See 155 Mo. 486. (c) Ballots cannot be opened and counted except in cases of contested elections. 88 Mo. 557; 7 A. 106; 68 A. 121. See also 164 Mo. 23. Appellate courts will not inquire into the legality of votes. 77 Mo. 189; see 130 Mo. 621; 128 Mo. 256; 130 Mo. 530; 112 Mo. 213. population exceeding twenty-five thousand inhabitants and not exceeding one hundred thousand, but not otherwise. (d) SEC. 6. Elections, viva voce, when.-All elections, by persons in a representative capacity, shall be viva voce. (e) SEC. 7. Residence as voters not gained or lost, when.-For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained a residence by reason of his presence or lost it by reason of his absence while employed in the service, either civil or military, of this state or of the United States, nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of the state or of the United States, or on the high seas, nor while a student of any institution of learning, nor while kept in a poorhouse or other asylum at public expense, nor while confined in public prison. (f) SEC. 8. Who disqualified as voters.-No person, while kept at any poor-house or other asylum, at public expense, nor while confined in any public prison, shall be entitled to vote at any election under the laws of this state. SEC. 9. Contested elections, trials of.-The trial and determination of contested elections of all public officers, whether state, judicial, municipal or local, except governor and lieutenant-governor, shall be by the courts of law, or by one or more of the judges thereof. The general assembly shall, by general law, designate the court or judge by whom the several classes of election contests shall be tried, and regulate the manner of trial and all matters incident thereto; but no such law, assigning jurisdiction or regulating its exercise, shall apply to any contest arising out of any election held before said law shall take effect. (g) SEC. IO. Criminals may be disqualified. The general assembly may enact laws excluding from the right of voting all persons convicted of felony or other infamous crime, or misdemeanors connected with the exercise of the right of suffrage. SEC. II. Officers, soldiers and marines disqualified.-No officer, soldier or marine in the regular army or navy of the United States shall be entitled to vote at any election in this state. (h) SEC. 12. Aliens not to be appointed or elected.—No person shall be elected or appointed to any office in this state, civil or military, who is not a citizen of the United States, and who shall not have resided in this state one year next preceding his election or appointment. (i) TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. ARTICLE IX. SEC. 8. Township organization-county justices.-The general assembly may provide, by general law, for township organization under which any county may organize whenever a majority of the legal voters (d) Registration of voters in certain cities, act valid. 85 Mo. 64, overruling 15 A. 441; see 131 Mo. 505; 126 Mo. 652; 122 Mo. 68. Prospecting operation. 98 Mo. 426. See 155 Mo. 486. (e) 128 Mo. 256. (f) 130 Mo. 621. (g) 134 Mo. 10; 126 Mo. 652. School director. 112 Mo. 213; 88 Mo. 557; 81 Mo. 13; 25 A, 563. (h) 140 Mo. 523. (i) 137 Mo. 636; 41 Mo. 227. |