were dominated by the magnates to a greater extent than those in Poland proper, as the Lithuanian magnates were more powerful than their Polish counterparts. The magnate-dominated sejmiks, which gathered impoverished nobility, have been described as more concerned with eating and drinking than debate; for the poorest of nobility, they were a rare occasion to participate in feasts sponsored by the magnates. When they met, the drunken nobility was known to fight among themselves, which on occasion led to fatalities. Sejmiks were significantly reformed by the Prawo o sejmikach, the act on regional sejms, passed on 24 March 1791 and subsequently recognized as part of the Constitution of 3 May. This law introduced major changes to the electoral ordinance, as it reduced the enfranchisement of the noble class. The voting right became tied to a property qualification; to be eligible to vote, a noble had to own or lease land and pay taxes, or be closely related to another who did. Some 300,000 out of 700,000 otherwise eligible nobles were thus disfranchised, much to their displeasure. A document from 1792 lists only 47 sejmiks. Although the independent existence of the Commonwealth ended with the partitions of Poland in 1795, the institution of the sejmik continued, albeit in a somewhat restricted fashion. In the Duchy of Warsaw, sejmiks elected deputies to the Sejm of the Duchy of Warsaw. Similarly, sejmiks of Congress Poland elected deputies to the Sejm of Congress Poland until its abolishment in 1831. Even in the Lithuanian territories incorporated into the Russian Empire, some judicial sejmiks were allowed to elect lower court judges; it was the only elective representative institution to survive in the Lithuanian territories after the partition. In the Prussian partition there were provincial sejmiks (Provinziallandtag) and powiat sejmiks (Kreistag). Near the turn of the century, some limited local representative institutions existed in the Russian partition and Austrian partition, but they did not bear the name of sejmiks. After Poland regained independence, provincial sejms were restored in the Second Polish Republic, although they were called sejms rather than sejmiks. They included the short-lived Sejm of Central Lithuania (1921–1922); the three voivodeship sejms (Silesian Parliament, Greater Poland Sejm, and Pomeranian Sejm, 1920–1939), which preserved the tradition of sejmiks in the former Prussian partition; and the county sejmiks, of which there were 264 in 1939. The existence of these institutions was interrupted by the occupation of Poland during