Article VI, § 24 — Rules governing legislative proceedings

A majority of the members elected to each house of the Legislature shall constitute a quorum. But a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and shall be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, as each house may provide. Each house shall determine the rules of its proceedings and be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members. The Senate shall choose, from its own body, a president; and the House of Delegates, from its own body, a speaker. Each house shall appoint its own officers, and remove them at pleasure. The oldest delegate in point of continuous service present at the assembly of the Legislature at which officers thereof are to be selected, and if there be two or more such delegates with equal continuous service the one agreed upon by such delegates or chosen by such delegates by lot, shall call the House to order, and preside over it until the speaker thereof shall have been chosen, and have taken his seat. The oldest member of the Senate in point of continuous service present at the assembly of the Legislature at which officers thereof are to be selected, and if there be two or more such members with equal continuous service the one agreed upon by such members or chosen by such members by lot, shall call the Senate to order, and preside over the same until a president of the Senate shall have been chosen, and have taken his seat.