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.

[Editor’s note. – The first amendment of this section was proposed by House Joint Resolution No.2, Acts, Regular Session, 1960, p. 833; submitted by Acts, Regular Session, 1960, c. 5; and ratified November 8, 1960. It added the words “but an amendment may relate to a single subject or to related subject matters and may amend or modify as many articles and as may sections of the Constitution as may be necessary and appropriate in order to accomplish the objectives of the amendment.” The second amendment was proposed by Senate Joint Resolution No. 3, Regular Session, 1971, p. 1041; submitted by Acts, Regular Session, 1971, c. 17; and ratified November 7, 1972. It inserted the words “at any regular or extraordinary session” in the first sentence; provided for submitting proposed amendments to the voters at special elections as well as general elections; and added the last sentence as it appears in the section above.]