The following plan of suffrage was introduced by Hon. Robert Smalls
and referred to the suffrage committee, which reported it unfavorably,
notwithstanding that he went before the committee and made a strong
speech in advocacy of the said plan, and said report was adopted by the
Convention:
SECTION 1. In all elections by the people the electors shall vote by
ballot.
SEC. 2. Every male citizen of the United States of the age of
twenty-one years and upwards, not laboring under the disabilities named
in this Constitution, without distinction of race, color or former
condition, who shall be a resident of this State at the time of the
adoption of this Constitution, or who shall thereafter reside in this
State one year, and in the county in which he offers to vote sixty days
next preceding any election, shall be entitled to vote for all officers
that are now or hereafter may be elected by the people, and upon all
questions submitted to the electors at any elections; provided, That no
person shall be allowed to vote or hold office who is now, or hereafter
may be, disqualified therefor by the Constitution of the United States,
until such disqualification shall be removed by the Congress of the
United States; provided, further, That no person while kept in any alms
house or asylum, or any of unsound mind, or confined in any public
prison, shall be allowed to vote or hold office.
SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide from
time to time for the registration of all electors.
SEC. 4. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have
lost his residence by reason of absence while employed in the service
of the United States, nor while engaged upon the waters of this State,
or the United States, or the high seas, nor while temporarily absent
from the State, or removing from one house to another or from one place
to another in the same precinct.
SEC. 5. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of the United
States shall be deemed a resident of this State in consequence of
having been stationed therein.
SEC. 6. Electors shall in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach
of the peace, be privileged from arrest and civil process during
attendance at elections and in going to and returning from the same.
SEC. 7. Every person entitled to vote at any election shall be eligible
to any office, which now is, or hereafter shall be elective by the
people in the county where he shall have resided sixty days previous to
such election, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution or the
Constitution and laws of the United States.
SEC. 8. The General Assembly shall never pass any law that will deprive
any of the citizens of this State of the right of suffrage, except for
treason, murder, robbery, or duelling, whereof the persons shall have
been duly tried and convicted.
SEC. 9. Presidential electors shall be elected by the people.
SEC. 10. In all elections, State and Federal, there shall be but one
ballot box, and one ticket for each party or faction thereof, with the
names of all the candidates thereon. There shall be three commissioners
of election for each county and three managers for each polling
precinct, not more than two of whom shall be of the same political
party.
SEC. 11. In all elections held by the people under this Constitution
the person or persons who shall receive the highest number of votes
shall be declared elected.