The vote was taken away from freed slaves in this convention. The convention approved the changes on July 11, 1835. The convention's proposed changes were adopted by vote of the people on November 9, 1835. The Convention of 18611862 was called to revise the constitution to remove North Carolina from the United States. The procedure used to amend the constitution did not need a vote of the people, a procedure that was active until removed in 1971. In 1865, Governor William W. Holden called for a Conference to write a new Constitution; it was rejected by a popular vote. Two years later, they reconvened. The new Constitution gave more power to the people and to the governor. "For its time, it was a progressive and democratic instrument of government." Akin to the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, also adopted in 1868, it was product of the winning side in the Civil War: the (anti-slavery) Republicans and a few scalawags. "It was highly unpopular with the more conservative [white supremacist, Democratic] elements of the state." From 1869 through 1968, there were submitted to the voters of North Carolina a total of 97 propositions for amending the Constitution of the State. All but one of these proposals originated in the General Assembly. Of those 97 amendment proposals, 69 were ratified by the voters and 28 were rejected by them. Due to the many amendments, many provisions in the constitution became antiquated, obsolete, and ambiguous. The document had simply become difficult to read and interpret. By 1971, there were 200 state agencies. The draft that later became the Constitution of 1971 began with a study into needed changes by the North Carolina State Bar in 1967. The study outlined a vastly improved and easily ratifiable document. The draft constitution logically organized topics and omitted obviously unconstitutional sections. The language and syntax was also updated and standardized. The study separated from the main document several amendments that it felt were necessary, but were potentially controversial. The main document passed the General Assembly in 1969 with only one negative vote in seven roll-call votes. On November 3, 1970, the proposed Constitution of 1971 was approved by a vote of 393,759 to 251,132. Since the Constitution of 1971, there have been over twenty amendments. The majority of these amendments extend the rights of citizens, or extend the government the ability to issue bonds. One notable exception was in 2012, when an amendment was added to prevent recognition of same-sex marriage. The following are significant amendments made since the 1971 constitution:  Article III, Section 11 of the North Carolina Constitution, approved by voters on November 3, 1970, required the legislature to reduce the more than 300 administrative departments, agencies, and offices to no more than 25 principal administrative departments by 1 July 1975.