Disqualification
from office for using money or property to secure or influence election -- Corporation not
to use money or other thing of value to influence election -- Exclusion from office for
conviction of felony or high misdemeanor -- Laws to regulate elections.
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 sufferance, 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.
Text as
Ratified on: August 3, 1891, and revised September 28, 1891.
History: Not yet amended.