INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 435 



to hold office, except as otherwise hmited by the Constitution. No law 

 curtailin<>; the right of suffrage can bo passed by the General Assembly, 

 except for treason, murder, robbery or duelling, whereof the person shall 

 have been tried and convicted. The Presidential Electors who cast the 

 vote .of the State for President and Vice-President of the United States, 

 are elected b}' the people. In all elections by the people, the candidates 

 receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected. The 

 State is divided into thirty-four judicial districts, called counties. Each 

 county is a body politic and corporate. [By a recent Act of the Legisla- 

 ture, following a provision of the Constitution, all electors must be regis- 

 tered in the election precinct in which they reside before they are entitled 

 to vote.] 



Taxation. — Taxation must be uniform and equal, and no tax shall be 

 levied except in pursuance of a law, which shall distinctly state the ob- 

 ject of the same, to which object such tax shall be applied. All State 

 taxes are levied by the General Assembly. A poll tax of one .dollar on 

 each poll is provided, to be applied exclusively to the public school fund. 

 The buildings and premises actually occupied by public schools, colleges 

 and institutions of learning, all charitable institutions in the nature of 

 asylums for the infirm, deaf, dumb and blind, idiotic and indigent per- 

 sons, all public libraries, churches and bur3dng grounds, are exempt from 

 taxation. A new assessment of property must be made every five years. 

 The State may contract public debts for the purpose of defraying extra- 

 ordinary expenditures, but it must do so by special act, specifying some 

 single object, and levying a special tax sufficient to pay the annual inter- 

 est on such debt ; and such Act must be passed by the vote of two-thirds 

 of the members of each branch of the General Assembly recorded by 

 yeas and nays on the journal. Municipal taxes are levied by the corpo- 

 rate authorities of counties, townships, school districts, cities, towns and 

 villages, under the authority of the Legislature. Such taxes must be 

 uniform in res|)ect to persons and property. 



Education. The supervision of public instruction is vested in a State 

 Superintendent of Education, who is elected by the qualified electors of 

 the State, in the same manner as the other State officers. One School 

 Commissioner for each county is also elected biennially, and the Com- 

 missioners so elected form a State Board of Education, of which the 

 State Superintendent is ex officio Chairman. It is made the duty of the 

 General Assembly to provide for a liberal and uniform system of free 

 public schools throughout the State and to provide for their support by 

 taxation. These schools must be unsectarian. [See infra " Statute 

 Law ; Public Instruction."] 



The Militia. [See rnfra under " Statute Law."] 



