Both members of the Senate and the House are chosen for terms of two years at the general State elections.

The General Assembly meets annually on the fourth Wednesday in June, and can make all laws deemed by its members proper and necessary for the welfare of the State not in conflict with the Constitution of the State or Constitution of the United States.  A majority of each House constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business.  Neither branch of the Legislature has the right to adjourn for a longer time than three days without the consent of the other, but should they disagree upon a question of adjournment, the Governor may adjourn either or both of them.  The Acts of the Legislature which are approved by the Governor and become laws are published each year for the information of the public.  When the Legislature is called upon to elect some officer, both branches meet in the hall of the House of Representatives, and the President of the Senate presides over the joint body and declares the result.  No bill can be passed by the Legislature unless it receives a majority vote of all members elected to each house of the General Assembly, and this fact must be shown by the journals of both houses.  It is also necessary for a measure to receive the signature of the Governor before becoming a law.  When a bill is vetoed by the Governor it may be passed by a two-thirds vote of the members of each house, thus making his approval unnecessary.  The most important appointments made by the Governor must be confirmed by the Senate before the appointments become effective.  The Senate has the sole power to hear impeachment proceedings.  It requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to sustain articles of impeachment before there can be a conviction.  The House of Representatives must first pass all bills for raising revenue and appropriating money, but the Senate may propose or concur in amendments to such bills.  The right to institute impeachments is vested in the House of Representatives.

FRANCHISE.—­Every male citizen of this State and of the United States twenty-one years old, who has resided in the State one year prior to the election, and in the county in which he offers to vote six months, who has paid all taxes required of him by law since 1877, is an elector, and if registered, may vote.  Those who have not paid their taxes, idiots, insane persons, illiterates of poor character who are neither ex-soldiers nor descendants of soldiers nor owners of a certain amount of property, and persons convicted of serious crime, unless pardoned, are disqualified from voting.