. In all the rest, except Delaware
and New Hampshire, which have special methods of amending, much more
than simple passage and ratification is required.

There are some half-dozen classes of technical requirements which make
the amending of many state constitutions wellnigh impossible. Some
states have never been able to amend; others have had to submit the
same amendment again and again before it passed, even in the case of
measures which were not unpopular. The Legislatures of Nebraska and
Alabama have occasionally succeeded in passing amendments favored
by politicians, by resorting to clever tricks to circumvent the
constitutional handicaps. Only by outwitting the framers have they
been able to make changes in their constitutions.

Among the common technical requirements are the passing by a set
proportion much larger than a mere majority of the legislature;
the passing of the people's vote by a majority of those voting for
candidates and not merely of those voting on the amendment itself;
the setting of special time and other limits for the submission
of amendments, etc. Many states combine three or more of these
requirements.

No impediment seems more vexatious than that which prevented the
Arkansas bill from coming before the people after the Legislature of
1915 had approved submission. Nor is Arkansas alone in limiting
the number of amendments to be submitted to the people at one time;
Kentucky goes farther and makes the limit two and Illinois allows but
one at a time.

The other six states whose bill failed at the last session belong to a
group of fifteen which require a special "constitutional majority" of
two-thirds or three-fifths favorable in the vote of both houses on an
amendment bill.[A] In South Carolina and Mississippi it must pass
two legislatures by this large vote, one before and one after the
referendum; in Mississippi this means four years' delay for its
sessions are quadrennial. In thirteen states the amendment bill must
pass two legislatures, in some by a constitutional majority at one
passage.[B]

Alabama is one of the states whose bill failed through the
constitutional majority rule in 1915. In that state another suffrage
bill must wait four years for the next legislative session. If this
time it surmounts the hazard of a three-fifths favorable vote it will
be faced by another hazard; for Alabama is one of nine states in which
an amendment must pass the

[Footnote A: South Carolina, G