Article XIV, West Virginia Constitution

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Article XIV of the West Virginia Constitution consists of two sections.

Section 1

Text of Section 1: Amendments No convention shall be called, having the authority to alter the constitution of the state, unless it be in pursuance of law, passed by the affirmative vote of a majority of the members elected to each house of the Legislature and providing that polls shall be opened throughout the state, on the same day therein specified, which shall not be less than three months after the passage of such law, for the purpose of taking the sense of the voters on the question of calling a convention. And such convention shall not be held unless a majority of the votes cast at such polls be in favor of calling the same; nor shall the members be elected to such convention, until, at least, one month after the result of the vote shall be duly ascertained, declared and published. And all acts and ordinances of the said convention shall be submitted to the voters of the State for ratification or rejection, and shall have no validity whatever until they are ratified.

Section 2

Text of Section 2: How Amendments Are Made Any amendment to the constitution of the state may be proposed in either house of the Legislature at any regular or extraordinary session thereof; and if the same, being read on three several days in each house, be agreed to on its third reading, by two thirds of the members elected thereto, the proposed amendment, with the yeas and nays thereon, shall be entered on the journals, and it shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide by law for submitting the same to the voters of the state for ratification or rejection, at a special election, or at the next general election thereafter, and cause the same to be published, at least three months before such election in some newspaper in every county in which a newspaper is printed. If a majority of the qualified voters, voting on the question at the polls held pursuant to such law, ratify the proposed amendment, it shall be in force from the time of such ratification, as part of the constitution of the state. If two or more amendments be submitted at the same time, the vote on the ratification or rejection shall be taken on each separately, but an amendment may relate to a single subject or to related subject matters and may amend or modify as many articles and as many sections of the constitution as may be necessary and appropriate in order to accomplish the objectives of the amendment. Whenever one or more amendments are submitted at a special election, no other question, issue or matter shall be voted upon at such special election, and the cost of such special election throughout the state shall be paid out of the state treasury.

See also

• State constitution
• Constitutional article
• Constitutional amendment
• Constitutional revision
• Constitutional convention
• Amendments
  • Initiated constitutional amendment
  • Legislatively-referred constitutional amendment
  • Publication requirements for proposed state constitutional amendments
  • Rules about constitutional conventions in state constitutions
  • State constitutional articles governing state legislatures

External links

Suggest a link

• West Virginia Legislature, "West Virginia Constitution"

Additional reading

• Bastress, Robert M. (2011). The West Virginia Constitution, New York, New York: Oxford University Press
• Stealey III, John E. (2013). West Virginia’s Civil War–Era Constitution, Kent State University Press