Every person offering to vote shall be at the time legally registered as a voter as herein prescribed and in the manner provided by law. The General Assembly shall enact general laws governing the registration of voters.
History Note. - The provisions of this section are similar to those of Art. VI, § 3, Const. 1868, as the article was rewritten in 1900.
CASE NOTES
Editor's Note. - The cases cited below were decided under former Art. VI, §§ 3 and 4, Const. 1868, as amended.
Registration is essential to the exercise by a citizen, possessed of the of the other legal qualifications, of his right to vote, and when duly made, is prima facie evidence of the right. State ex rel. Hampton v. Waldrop, 104 N.C. 453, 10 S.E. 694 (1889).
And Entitles Elector to Vote. - The registration of an elector who is qualified to vote must be accepted as the act of a public officer, and entitles the elector to cast his vote. State ex rel. DeBerry v. Nicholson, 102 N.C. 465, 9 S.E. 545 (1889).
Literacy Requirement. - The provisions of a former G.S. 163-28 which provided that a person presenting himself for registration had to, before he was registered, prove to the satisfaction of the registrar (now chief judge) his ability to read and write any section of the Constitution, was held valid, since authority was granted to the legislature by this section to enact general legislation to carry out the provisions of this Article. Allison v. Sharp, 209 N.C. 477, 184 S.E. 27 (1936). See also, N.C. Const., Art. VI, § 4, and notes thereunder.
Where the registration book of an election precinct was lost, and could not be replaced, but the registrar (now chief judge) procured a new book, in which he entered the names of such persons as he knew had theretofore been registered, and also the names of those who applied for registration subsequently, and it appeared that at the election following, no one voted whose name did not appear on the registration book, no one voted who was not entitled to vote, and no one who was entitled to vote was excluded, the election was valid. State ex rel. Hampton v. Waldrop, 104 N.C. 453, 10 S.E. 694 (1889).
An act authorizing a bond issue by a county was not objectionable as violating this section upon the ground that it empowered the county commissioners to order a new registration. Cox v. Commissioners of Pitt County, 146 N.C. 584, 60 S.E. 516 (1908).