shall be privileged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and while they are going to and returning therefrom.

SEC. 150. Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit for the term for which he shall have been elected who shall be convicted of having given, or consented to the giving, offer or promise of any money or other thing of value, to procure his election, or to influence the vote of any voter at such election; and if any corporation shall directly or indirectly, offer, promise or give, or shall authorize, directly or indirectly, any person to offer, promise or give any money or any thing of value to influence the result of any election in this State, or the vote of any voter authorized to vote therein, or who shall afterward reimburse or compensate, in any manner whatever, any person who shall have offered, promised or given any money or other thing of value to influence the result of any election or the vote of any such voter, such corporation, if organized under the laws of this Commonwealth, shall, on conviction thereof, forfeit its charter and all rights, privileges and immunities thereunder; and if chartered by another State and doing business in this State, whether by license, or upon mere sufference, such corporation upon conviction of either of the offenses aforesaid, shall forfeit all right to carry on any business in this State; and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide for the enforcement of the provisions of this section. All persons shall be excluded from office who have been, or shall hereafter be, convicted of a felony, or of such high misdemeanor as may be prescribed by law, but such disability may be removed by pardon of the Governor. The privilege of free suffrage, shall be supported by laws regulating elections, and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon, from power, bribery, tumult or other improper practices.

SEC. 151. The General Assembly shall provide suitable means for depriving of office any person who, to procure his nomination or election, has, in his canvass or election, been guilty of any unlawful use of money, or other thing of value, or has been guilty of fraud, intimidation, bribery, or any other corrupt practice, and he shall be held responsible for acts done by others with his authority, or ratified by him.

SEC. 152. Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, vacancies in all elective offices shall be filled by election or appointment, as follows: If the unexpired term will end at the next succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district, or State officers are to be elected, the office shall be filled by appointment for the remainder of the term. If the unexpired term will not end at the next succeeding annual election, at which either city, town, county, district, or State officers are to be elected, and if three months intervene before said succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district, or State officers are to be elected, the office shall be filled by appointment until said election, and then said vacancy shall be filled by election for the remainder of the term. If three months do not intervene between the happening of said vacancy and the next succeeding election at which city, town, county, district or State officers are to be elected, the office shall be filled by appointment until the second succeeding annual election at which city, town, county, district or State officers are to be elected; and then, if any part of the term remains unexpired, the office shall be filled by election until the regular time for the election of officers to fill said offices.

Sec. 152. Applies to offices for towns and cities created by the General Assembly. (Shelley v. McCulloch, 17 Ky. Law Rep.. 53.) Berry v. McCullough, 94 Ky., 247: Long v. Bourn, 94 Ky., 540; Todd v. Johnson, 99 Ky., 548: Pence v. City, 19 R., 721.

Vacanies in all offices for the State at large, or for districts larger than a county, shall be filled by appointment of the Governor; all other appointments shall be made as may be prescribed by law. No person shall ever be appointed a member of the General Assembly, but vacancies herein may be filled at a special election, in such manner as may be provided by law.

SEC. 153 Except as otherwise herein expressly provided, the General Assembly shall have power to provide by general law for the manner of voting, for ascertaining the result of elections and making due returns thereof, for issuing certificates or commissions to all persons entitled thereto, and for the trial of contested elections.*

SEC. 154. The General Assembly shall prescribe such laws as may be necessary for the restriction or prohibition of the sale or gift of spirituous, vinous or malt liquors on election days.

SEC. 155. The provisions of sections one hundred and forty-five to one hundred and fifty-four, inclusive, shall not apply to the election of school'trustees and other common school district elections. Said elections shall be regulated by the General Assembly, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution.

MUNICIPALITIES.

SEC. 156. The cities and towns of this Commonwealth,

*Sec. 153. Purnell v. Mann, 20 R., 1146.

Sec. 154. Sale of liquor at any time during twenty-four hours of an election day is in violation of statute passed pursuant to this provision. (Commonwealth v. Murphy, 95 Ky., 38.)

Sec. 155. Moss v. Riley, 19 R., 993; Green v. Com., 95 Ky., 233; Jernigan v. City, 19 R., 1412.

Sec. 156. Legislature may authorize city council to provide by ordinance whether mayor shall be appointed or elected. (Idem, 149.) (2) Does not prohibit filling of vacancy in city office at time of congressional election. (Shelley v. McCulloch, 17 Ky Law Rep., 53.)

Sec. 156. Cited in Long and Wife v. City of Louisville, 17 Ky. Law Rep., 253. (2) City assigned by mistake to wrong class must remain in that class until changed by Legislature. (Green, &c., v. Commonwealth, 95 Ky., 233.) Jernigan v. City, 19 R., 1412.

for the purposes of their organization and government, shall be divided into six classes. The organization and powers of each class shall be defined and provided for by general laws, so that all municipal corporations of the same class shall possess the same powers and be subject to the same restrictions. To the first class shall belong: cities with a population of one hundred thousand or more; to the second class, cities with a population of twenty thousand or more, and less than one hundred thousand; to the third class, cities with a population of eight thousand or more, and less than twenty thousand; to the fourh class. cities and towns with a population of three thousand or more and less than eight thousand; to the fifth class, cities and towns with a population of one thousand or more, and less than three thousand; to the sixth class, towns with a population of less than one thousand. The General Assembly shall assign the cities and towns of the Commonwealth to the classes to which they respectively belong, and change assignments made as the population of said cities and towns may increase or decrease, and in the absence of other satisfactory information as to their population, shall be governed by the last preceding Federal census in so doing; but no city or town shall be transferred from one class to another, except in pursuance of a law previously enacted and providing therefor. The General Assembly, by general law, shall provide how towns may be organized, and enact laws for the government of such towns until the same are assigned to one or the other of the classses above named; but such assignment shall be made at the first session of the General Assembly after the organization of said town or city.

SEC. 157. The tax rate of cities, towns, counties, taxing districts and other municipalities, for other than school

Sec. 157. For construction of this section, see Holzhauer v. City of Newport, 15 Ky. Law Rep., 188.

purposes, shall not at any time, exceed the following rates upon the value of the taxable property therein, viz: For all towns or cities having a population of fifteen thousand or more, one dollar and fifty cents on the hundred dollars; for all towns or cities having less than fifteen thousand and not less than ten thousand, one dollar on the hundred dollars; for all towns or cities having less than ten thousand, seventy-five cents on the hundred dollars; and for counties and taxing districts, fifty cents on the hundred dollars; unless it should be necessary to enable such city, town, county, or taxing district to pay the interest on, and provide a sinking fund for the extinction of, indebtedness contracted before the adoption of this Constitution. No county, city, town, taxing district, or other municipality, shall be authorized or permitted to become indebted, in any manner or for any purpose, to an amount exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year, without the assent of two-thirds of the voters thereof, voting at an election to be held for that purpose; and any indebtedness contracted in violation of this section shall be void. Nor shall such contract be enforceable by the person with whom made; nor shall such municipality ever be authorized to assume same.

1 SEC. 158. The respective cities, towns, counties, taxing

Sec. 157. Field v. Stroube, 19 R., 1751; Montgomery Co. Fiscal Court v. Trimble, 20 R., 827, overruling Belknap v. City, 99 Ky., 474 and Fidelity Trust Co. v. Morganfield, 95 Ky., 563; City v. Barker. 18 R., 324; McGoodwin v. City, 18 R., 752; City of Ashland v. Culbertson, 19 R., 1812; City v. McKenna, 99 Ky., 508; Fidelity Trust Co. v. Mayor, 96 Ky, 563; Com. v. L. & N. K. R. Co., 20 R., 1127; Richmond Cemetery Co. v. Sullivan, Judge, 20 R., 1028.

Secs. 157, 158. Considered in following cases: Holzhauer v. City of Newport. 94 Ky., 396; Beard, &c., v. City of Hopkinsville, 95 Ky., 239; City of Lexington on Appeal, 96 Ky., 258; Aydelott v. South Louisville, 16 Ky. Law Rep., 166; City Council of Richmond v. Powell, 16 Ky. Law Rep., 174; City of Shelbyville v. Shelbyville Water and Light Co., 16 Ky. Law Rep., 176; City of Ludlow, &c., v. Board of Education, 16 Ky. Law Rep., 805; Farson, Leach & Co. v. Board Sinking Fund Commissioners, 16 Ky. Law Rep., 856; O'Mahoney v. Bullock, 17 Ky. Law Rep., 523.