Ballot Questions
1938
Question #1
State Constitutional Amendment
NYS were asked if they wanted to pass an amendment to the NYS constitution,
to change the whole NYS constitution, except for certain provisions with separate ballot questions - as proposed by the 1938 NY constitutional convention
as proposed by the most recent NYS Constitutional Convention
And the voters said: Yes!
How We Voted
YES |
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53.88% |
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1,521,036 New Yorkers voted Yes |
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NO |
46.12% |
|
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1,301,797 New Yorkers voted No |
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2,822,833 votes determined the outcome of this ballot question.
We found out how every county voted on this ballot question, and mapped it!
Click on a county to see how its voters stood on this questionCounty:
Yes:
No:
Percent Yes:
We found out how every county voted on this ballot question, and mapped it!
Visit this page on a large screen and you'll find our map. Click on a county to see how its voters stood on this questionThis BQ Amended
Note: When voters approved of provisions, the new changes take effect on January 1st of the year after the question's appearance on the ballot
III.19 proposed for 1939
Article III: Legislature • Section 19: Private claims not to be audited by legislature; claims barred by lapse of time.
The legislature shall neither audit nor allow any private claim or account against the state, but may appropriate money to pay such claims as shall have been audited and allowed according to law. No claim against the state shall be audited, allowed or paid which, as between citizens of the state, would be barred by lapse of time. This provision…
Read moreIII.20 proposed for 1939
Article III: Legislature • Section 20: Two-thirds bills.
The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each branch of the legislature shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public moneys or property for local or private purposes.
Read moreIII.21 proposed for 1939
Article III: Legislature • Section 21: Certain sections not to apply to bills recommended by certain commissioners or public agencies.
Sections 15, 16 and 17 of this article shall not apply to any bill, or the amendments to any bill, which shall be recommended to the legislature by commissioners or any public agency appointed or directed pursuant to law to prepare revisions, consolidations or compilations of statutes. But a bill amending an existing law shall not be excepted from the…
Read moreIII.22 proposed for 1939
Article III: Legislature • Section 22: Tax laws to state tax and object distinctly.
Every law which imposes, continues or revives a tax shall distinctly state the tax and the object to which it is to be applied, and it shall not be sufficient to refer to any other law to fix such tax or object.
Read moreIII.23 proposed for 1939
Article III: Legislature • Section 23: When yeas and nays necessary; three-fifths to constitute quorum.
On the final passage, in either house of the legislature, of any act which imposes, continues or revives a tax, or creates a debt or charge, or makes, continues or revives any appropriation of public or trust money or property, or releases, discharges or commutes any claim or demand of the state, the question shall be taken by yeas and…
Read moreIII.24 proposed for 1939
Article III: Legislature • Section 24: Prison labor; contract system abolished
The legislature shall, by law, provide for the occupation and employment of prisoners sentenced to the several state prisons, penitentiaries, jails and reformatories in the state; and no person in any such prison, penitentiary, jail or reformatory, shall be required or allowed to work, while under sentence thereto, at any trade, industry or occupation, wherein or whereby his work, or…
Read moreIV.1 proposed for 1939
Article IV: Executive • Section 1: Executive power; election and terms of governor and lieutenant-governor.
The executive power shall be vested in the governor, who shall hold his office for four years; the lieutenant-governor shall be chosen at the same time, and for the same term. The governor and lieutenant-governor shall be chosen at the general election held in the year nineteen hundred thirty-eight, and each fourth year thereafter. The persons respectively having the highest…
Read moreIV.2 proposed for 1939
Article IV: Executive • Section 2: Qualifications of governor and lieutenant-governor.
No person shall be eligible to the office of governor or lieutenant-governor, except a citizen of the United States, of the age of not less than thirty years, and who shall have been five years next preceding the election a resident of this state.
Read moreIV.3 proposed for 1939
Article IV: Executive • Section 3: Powers and duties of governor; compensation.
The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the state. He shall have power to convene the legislature, or the senate only, on extraordinary occasions. At extraordinary sessions no subject shall be acted upon, except such as the governor may recommend for consideration. He shall communicate by message to the legislature at every session the condition…
Read moreIV.4 proposed for 1939
Article IV: Executive • Section 4: Reprieves, commutations and pardons; powers and duties of governor relating to grants of.
The governor shall have the power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons after conviction, for all offenses except treason and cases of impeachment, upon such conditions and with such restrictions and limitations, as he may think proper, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law relative to the manner of applying for pardons. Upon conviction for treason, he…
Read moreIV.5 proposed for 1939
Article IV: Executive • Section 5: When lieutenant-governor to act as governor.
In case of the impeachment of the governor, or his removal from office, death, inability to discharge the powers and duties of the office, resignation, or absence from the state, the powers and duties of the office shall devolve upon the lieutenant-governor for the residue of the term, or until the disability shall cease. But when the governor shall, with…
Read moreIV.6 proposed for 1939
Article IV: Executive • Section 6: Duties and compensation of lieutenant-governor; succession to the governorship.
The lieutenant-governor shall possess the same qualifications of eligibility for office as the governor. He shall be president of the senate, but shall have only a casting vote therein. If the office of governor become vacant and there be no lieutenant-governor, such vacancy shall be filled for the remainder of the term at the next general election happening not less…
Read moreIV.7 proposed for 1939
Article IV: Executive • Section 7: Action by governor on legislative bills; reconsideration after veto.
Every bill which shall have passed the senate and assembly shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the governor; if he approves, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it with his objections to the house in which it shall have originated, which shall enter the objections at large on the journal, and proceed to…
Read moreIV.8 proposed for 1939
Article IV: Executive • Section 8: Departmental rules and regulations; filing; publication.
No rule or regulation made by any state department, board, bureau, officer, authority or commission, except such as relates to the organization or internal management of a state department, board, bureau, authority or commission shall be effective until it is filed in the office of the department of state. The legislature shall provide for the speedy publication of such rules…
Read moreV.1 proposed for 1939
Article V: Officers And Civil Departments • Section 1: Comptroller and attorney-general; payment of state moneys without audit void.
The comptroller and attorney-general shall be chosen at the same general election as the governor and hold office for the same term, and shall possess the qualifications provided in section 2 of article IV. The legislature shall provide for filling vacancies in the office of comptroller and of attorney-general. No election of a comptroller or an attorney-general shall be had…
Read moreV.2 proposed for 1939
Article V: Officers And Civil Departments • Section 2: Civil departments in the state government.
There shall be the following civil departments in the state government: First, executive; second, audit and control; third, taxation and finance; fourth, law; fifth, state; sixth, public works; seventh, conservation; eighth, agriculture and markets; ninth, labor; tenth, education; eleventh, health; twelfth, mental hygiene; thirteenth, social welfare; fourteenth, correction; fifteenth, public service; sixteenth, banking; seventeenth, insurance; eighteenth, civil service.
Read moreV.3 proposed for 1939
Article V: Officers And Civil Departments • Section 3: Assignment of functions; new departments prohibited.
Subject to the limitations contained in this constitution, the legislature may from time to time assign by law new powers and functions to departments, officers, boards or commissions, and increase, modify or diminish their powers and functions. No new departments shall be created hereafter, but this shall not prevent the legislature from creating temporary commissions for special purposes and nothing…
Read moreV.4 proposed for 1939
Article V: Officers And Civil Departments • Section 4: Department heads.
The head of the executive department shall be the governor. The head of the department of audit and control shall be the comptroller and of the department of law, the attorney-general. The head of the department of education shall be The Regents of the University of the State of New York, who shall appoint and at pleasure remove a commissioner…
Read moreV.5 proposed for 1939
Article V: Officers And Civil Departments • Section 5: Certain offices abolished.
All offices for the weighing, gauging, measuring, culling or inspecting any merchandise, produce, manufacture or commodity whatever, are hereby abolished; and no such office shall hereafter be created by law; but nothing in this section contained shall abrogate any office created for the purpose of protecting the public health or the interest of the state in its property, revenue, tolls…
Read moreV.6 proposed for 1939
Article V: Officers And Civil Departments • Section 6: Civil service appointments and promotions.
Appointments and promotions in the civil service of the state, and all of the civil divisions thereof, including cities and villages, shall be made according to merit and fitness to be ascertained, so far as practicable, by examinations, which, so far as practicable, shall be competitive; provided, however, any honorably discharged soldiers, sailors, marines or nurses of the army, navy…
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