The unsettled condition of the negro population suggested to Pope the possibility that many negroes would lose their right to vote by change of residence. He therefore ordered on August 15 that persons removing from the district where they were registered should be furnished by the board of registry with a certificate of registration, which should entitle them to vote anywhere in the state.[85] The election for deciding whether a constitutional convention should be held, and for choosing delegates in case the affirmative vote prevailed, was ordered to begin on October 29 and to continue three days. Registrars were ordered to revise their lists during the fortnight preceding the election, to erase names wrongly registered, and to add the names of persons entitled to be registered. The boards of registry were to act as judges of election, but registrars who were candidates for election were forbidden to serve in the districts where they sought election.[86] The election was to occupy the last three days of October. On October 30 Pope extended the time to the night of November 2, in order to give the negroes ample opportunity to vote, which in their inexperience they might otherwise fail to do.[87] After the election the following figures were announced:[88] Number of registered voters in Georgia 188,647 Of these the negroes numbered 93,457 " the white men[89] 95,214 Number of votes polled 106,410 " " for a convention 102,283 " " against a convention 4,127 The delegates elected were ordered to meet in convention on December 9th.[90] On that day the convention met in Atlanta. Its business was not completed until the middle of March in the following year. The constitution which it framed more than met the demands of the Reconstruction Acts. A single citizenship was established for all residents of the state, in language borrowed from the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution.[91] Legislation on the subject of social status of citizens was forever prohibited.[92] The electoral right was given to all male persons born or naturalized in the United States who should have resided six months in Georgia.[93] Electors were privileged from arrest (except for treason, felony or breach of the peace) for five days before, during, and for two days after, elections, and the legislature was ordered to provide such other means for the protection of electors as might be necessary.[94] Other provisions presumably acceptable to northern sentiment were the prohibition of whipping as a penalty for crime,[95] and the command that the legislature should create a system of public schools free to all children of the state.[96]