HLS 16RS-455 ORIGINAL
2016 Regular Session
HOUSE BILL NO. 83
BY REPRESENTATIVE GAROFALO
VOTERS/VOTING: (Constitutional Amendment) Provides for disqualification from
seeking or holding public office
1 A JOINT RESOLUTION
2Proposing to amend Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution of Louisiana, relative to public
3 office; to prohibit a person who is convicted of a felony from qualifying for election
4 to public office and from taking or being appointed to public office; to provide for
5 exceptions; to provide for submission of the proposed amendment to the electors;
6 and to provide for related matters.
7 Section 1. Be it resolved by the Legislature of Louisiana, two-thirds of the members
8elected to each house concurring, that there shall be submitted to the electors of the state of
9Louisiana, for their approval or rejection in the manner provided by law, a proposal to
10amend Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution of Louisiana, to read as follows:
11 §10. Right to Vote; Disqualification from Seeking or Holding Public Office
12 Section 10.(A) Right to Vote. Every citizen of the state, upon reaching
13 eighteen years of age, shall have the right to register and vote, except that this right
14 may be suspended while a person is interdicted and judicially declared mentally
15 incompetent or is under an order of imprisonment for conviction of a felony.
16 (B) Disqualification. The following persons shall not be permitted to qualify
17 as a candidate for elective public office or take public elective office or appointment
18 of honor, trust, or profit in this state:
19 (1) A person who has been convicted within this state of a felony and who
20 has exhausted all legal remedies, or who has been convicted under the laws of any
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HB NO. 83
1 other state or of the United States or of any foreign government or country of a crime
2 which, if committed in this state, would be a felony and who has exhausted all legal
3 remedies and has not afterwards been pardoned either by the governor of this state
4 or by the officer of the state, nation, government, or country having such authority
5 to pardon in the place where the person was convicted and sentenced.
6 (2) A person actually under an order of imprisonment for conviction of a
7 felony.
8 (C) Exception. Notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph (B) of this
9 Section, a person who desires to qualify as a candidate for or hold an elective office,
10 who has been convicted of a felony and who has served his sentence, but has not
11 been pardoned for such felony, shall be permitted to qualify as a candidate for or
12 hold such office if the date of his qualifying for such office is more than fifteen years
13 after the date of the completion of his original sentence.
14 Section 2. Be it further resolved that this proposed amendment shall be submitted
15to the electors of the state of Louisiana at the statewide election to be held on November 8,
162016.
17 Section 3. Be it further resolved that on the official ballot to be used at the election,
18there shall be printed a proposition, upon which the electors of the state shall be permitted
19to vote YES or NO, to amend the Constitution of Louisiana, which proposition shall read as
20follows:
21 Do you support an amendment to prohibit a person convicted of a felony
22 from qualifying for election to public office and from taking or being
23 appointed to public office within fifteen years of the completion of the
24 person's sentence and to exclude from the prohibition a person who is
25 pardoned? (Amends Article I, Section 10)
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HB NO. 83
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HB 83 Original 2016 Regular Session Garofalo
Abstract: Prohibits a person who has been convicted of a felony from qualifying for or
taking public elective office or appointment of honor, trust, or profit in this state.
Provides certain exceptions for persons pardoned by appropriate officer and persons
for whom more than 15 years have passed after completion of sentence.
Present constitution provides that the right to register and vote may be suspended while a
person is interdicted and judicially declared mentally incompetent or under an order of
imprisonment for conviction of a felony.
Proposed constitutional amendment retains present constitution and further prohibits the
following from qualifying as a candidate for elective public office or taking public elective
office or appointment of honor, trust, or profit in this state:
(1)A person who has been convicted within this state of a felony and who has exhausted
all legal remedies, or who has been convicted under the laws of any other state or of
the U.S. or of any foreign government or country of a crime which, if committed in
this state, would be a felony and who has exhausted all legal remedies and has not
afterwards been pardoned either by the governor of this state or by the officer of the
state, nation, government, or country having such authority to pardon in the place
where the person was convicted and sentenced.
(2)A person actually under an order of imprisonment for conviction of a felony.
Proposed constitutional amendment further authorizes a person to qualify as a candidate for
or hold elective office if the date of qualifying for such office is more than 15 years after the
date of the completion of his original sentence.
Provides for submission of the proposed amendment to the voters at the statewide election
to be held Nov. 8, 2016.
(Amends Art. I, §10)
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CODING: Words in struck through type are deletions from existing law; words underscored
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