Chap. 2.—An ACT to provide for a convention to ratify or reject an amendment
to the Constitution of the United States, proposed by the Congress of the
United States, for repeal of the eighteenth article of amendment to the said
Constitution, and for the prohibition of the transportation or importation into
any state, territory or possession of the United States for delivery or use
therein of intoxicating liquors in violation of the laws thereof; to provide
for the nomination and election of delegates to such convention; and to make
an appropriation therefor. [S. B. 1]

Approved August 28, 1933

Whereas, the Congress of the United States has proposed an amend-
ment to the Constitution of the United States in the following language:

“JOINT RESOLUTION

“Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House
concurring therein), That the following article is hereby proposed as an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be
valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when rati-
fied by conventions in three-fourths of the several states ; :

“ARTICLE ............

“Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution
of the United States is hereby repealed.

“Section 2. The transportation or importation into any state, terri-
tory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of
intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby pro-
hibited. :

“Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been
ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the
several states, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from
the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress”; now,
therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. A special election for the purpose of electing delegates to
a convention in this State, for the purpose of ratifying or rejecting the
proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, recited
in the preamble of this act, is hereby called, to be held in all of the
counties and cities of the State on Tuesday, the third day of October,
nineteen hundred and thirty-three.

The said election shall be held and conducted by the regular election
officers, except that the services of the regular clerks of election shall
be dispensed with and one of the judges of election at each voting pre-
cinct shall perform the duties of clerk. The judges and commissioners
of election shall receive as compensation for their services the sum of
three dollars each for each day’s service rendered and such mileage as is
now provided by general law.

Section 2. The persons entitled to vote in the said election shall be
electors qualified to vote for members of the General Assembly at the
regular election to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in
November, nineteen hundred and thirty-three.

Section 3. Except as in this act otherwise provided, the said election
shall be conducted, and the results thereof canvassed and certified in
the same manner as in the case of the election in this State of electors
for President and Vice-President of the United States, and all pro-
visions of the laws of this State relevant to the election of electors
for President and Vice-President of the United States, except in so far
as inconsistent with this act, are hereby made applicable to the election
of delegates to the convention provided for herein.

Section 4. The number of delegates to be chosen to such convention
shall be thirty, all of whom shall be elected from the State at large.

Section 5. Each candidate for the office of delegate to the said con-
vention shall be qualified to vote in the election herein provided for.

Each person desiring to be nominated as a candidate for the office
of delegate to the said convention shall, on or before the second day of
September, nineteen hundred and thirty-three, make, sign and file with
the Secretary of the Commonwealth a written declaration of candidacy
for such nomination, which shall be in substantially the following form:

Ng a-ce-veennennerenenneemeisins , of the county (or the city) Of -.....--.------ee
declare myself to be a ‘candidate for nomination as candidate for the
office of delegate to the convention called by the General Assembly to
ratify or reject an amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
proposed by the Congress of the United States for the repeal of the
eighteenth amendment to the said Constitution, and for the prohibition
of the transportation or importation into any state, territory or posses-
sion of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating
liquors in violation of the laws thereof.

“Given under my hand this ........ day of .........-..--.----, 1933.

“(Signed ) .......--ecceseccececeeceeeces ”

The said declaration shall also contain a statement as to whether the
person signing the same favors the ratification or opposes the ratification
of the said amendment.

The said declaration shall be acknowledged before some officer who
has the authority to take acknowledgments to deeds, or attested by
two persons who can write, signing as witnesses.

As soon as may be after the second day of September, nineteen
hundred and thirty-three, and on or before the ninth day of the said
month, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the
House of Delegates and two persons (one of whom shall be a member
of that political party which at the last presidential election in this State
cast the highest number of votes, and the other of whom shall be a
member of that political party which at the same election cast the next
highest number of votes) selected by the Governor, shall, on the call of
the Governor, meet in the capitol at Richmond for the purpose of
nominating candidates to be voted for in the election provided for here-
in. Any three of the persons named shall, for such purposes, constitute
a quorum. They may adopt rules for their procedure and may adjourn
from time to time. To them the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall

certify the names and addresses of all persons who shall have filed
declarations of candidacy for nomination with him in accordance with
the provisions of this act, listing separately those favoring the ratifica-
tion and those opposing the ratification of the proposed amendment
herein referred to. From the names so certified the Governor, the Lieu-
tenant Governor, the Speaker of the House of Delegates and the two
persons selected by the Governor, or any three or more of them as shall
be present, shall, by a majority vote, nominate from those favoring the
ratification of the said amendment a group of thirty candidates, and
from those opposing the ratification of the said amendment a group of
thirty candidates. The names of the thirty candidates so nominated
favoring the ratification of the said amendment and of the thirty can-
didates so nominated opposing the ratification of the said amendment
shall be certified by the Governor to the Secretary of the Common-
wealth, who shall immediately thereafter certify their names to the
electoral boards of the counties and of the cities of the State, listing the
names of the candidates in their respective groups. The said boards
shall immediately thereafter cause to be printed and distributed the
necessary ballots for the said election.

Section 6. The election shall be by ballot separate from any ballot
to be used at the same election.

The names of the candidates nominated in accordance with the pro-
visions of the preceding section shall appear on the ballots in groups as
nominated, the group favoring the ratification of the proposed amend-
ment under the designation “For Ratification (For Repeal),” and the
group opposing the ratification of the proposed amendment under the
designation “Against Ratification (Against Repeal),” the two groups
being placed on the ballot in the order herein named. Directly pre-
ceding the aforesaid designations and names of candidates shall appear
the following general heading : “Election of delegates to a Constitutional
Convention called to ratify or reject the following amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, proposed by Joint Resolution of
Congress”; then shall follow the text of the proposed amendment and
the words “(Vote for thirty delegates).’”’ No name shall be printed on
the ballots except the names of the candidates selected as provided in
section five of this act, but three blank spaces shall be left following
the names in each group in which the voter may insert the name of any
person qualified to vote in the said election and not printed on the ballot
for whom he desires to vote.

Each elector may vote for thirty candidates. In order to vote, each
elector shall draw a line through the name of each candidate for whom
he does not wish to vote, leaving the names of the candidates for whom
he wishes to vote unscratched; or he may vote for the thirty candidates
who favor ratification by drawing a line through the words “Against
Ratification” and leaving the words “For Ratification” unscratched, or
for the thirty candidates who oppose ratification by drawing a line
through the words “For Ratification” and leaving the words “Against
Ratification” unscratched, in which event the ballot shall be counted as
if each of the names in the group under the words through which the
line is drawn, had been drawn through or scratched. If any line is
drawn two-thirds of the way through the words “For Ratification,” or
“Against Ratification,” or the name of any candidate, such words or
such name or names shall be counted as having been drawn through
or scratched.

Section 7. The thirty candidates receiving the highest number of
votes at said election shall be the delegates to the said convention.

For the purpose of canvassing the results of the said election, the
Board of State Canvassers shall meet at the office of the Secretary of
the Commonwealth on Tuesday, the tenth day of October, next after
the said election, when they shall, upon the certified abstracts on file
in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, proceed to ex-
amine and make a statement of the whole number of votes given at
such election for delegates to the said convention. If said abstracts, or
any of them, shall not be received at the time of such meetings, the
board may adjourn from time to time until the abstracts shall be re-
ceived and their labors are completed. The statement herein provided
for shall show the names of persons for whom such votes have been
given and the whole number given to each, distinguishing the several
cities and counties in which they were given; the Board of State Can-
vassers shall certify such statements to be correct and subscribe their
names thereto, and they shall thereupon determine what persons have
been by the greatest number of votes duly elected delegates to the said
convention, and shall endorse and subscribe on such statement a certifi-
cate of such determination and deliver it to the Secretary of the Com-
monwealth. The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall record in a suit-
able book to be kept in his office for that purpose such certified statement
and determination as made by the Board of State Canvassers, and shall
without delay make out and transmit to each of the persons thereby
declared to be elected a certificate of his election, certified by him under
the seal of his office. He shall thereupon transmit to the clerk of the
House of Delegates a list of the delegates elected. He shall also lay
before the convention herein provided for immediately upon its meeting,
a list of the delegates elected thereto.

Section 8. The delegates to the convention shall meet in the hall of
the House of Delegates, in the State Capitol, in Richmond, or in such
other suitable place as may be provided by the Director of the Division
of Grounds and Buildings, at noon on Wednesday, the twenty-fifth day
of October, nineteen hundred and thirty-three. The clerk of the House
of Delegates shall act as temporary chairman in the organization of
the convention, shall administer the oath of office to the delegates, and,
after permanent organization of the convention shall have been per-
fected, shall act as secretary of the said convention, without additional
compensation. The delegates, after taking the oath of office required
by the Constitution, shall thereupon constitute a convention to pass upon
the question of whether or not the proposed amendment shall be ratified.
‘Twenty members shall constitute a quorum.

If because of sickness or for any other reason the clerk of the
House of Delegates cannot perform the duties herein imposed upon
him, the Governor shall designate some other person who shall exercise
all the powers and perform all the duties vested in and imposed upon
the said clerk of the House of Delegates by this act.

Section 9. The convention shall be the judge of the election and
qualification of its members, and shall have power to elect its president
and other officers and to adopt its own rules. If there shall be a vacancy
in the convention caused by the death or disability of any delegate, or
by any other cause, such vacancy shall be filled by appointment by a
majority vote of the remaining delegates whose names appeared in the
same group on the ballot as did that of the member whose office as dele-
gate shall have been so vacated; if the convention contains no other
delegate or delegates to fill such vacancy in the manner aforesaid such
vacancy shall be filled immediately by the Governor.
Section 10. The convention shall keep a journal of its proceedings
in which shall be recorded the vote of each delegate on the question of
ratification of the proposed amendment. Upon final adjournment such
journal shall be filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Section 11. If the convention shall agree by vote of a majority of
the total number of delegates to the ratification of the proposed amend-
ment, a certificate, in duplicate, to that effect shall be executed by the
president and secretary of the convention and transmitted to the Gov-
ernor, who thereupon shall transmit to the Secretary of State of the
United States one of the said certificates duly authenticated under the
great seal of the Commonwealth.

Section 12. The delegates to the convention shall receive no compen-
sation; each delegate shall receive, however, mileage at the rate of five
cents per mile for every mile of necessary travel to and from the place
of meeting to be computed accordingly to the nearest mail route.

For the purpose of defraying such mileage and the actual expenses
‘of the convention, a sum not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars, or so
much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any
monies in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, the same to be paid
by the Treasurer on the warrant of the Comptroller, upon the proper
voucher or vouchers required by the Comptroller, signed by the secre-
tary of the convention.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its passage.