Chap. 119.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act approved March 12, 1904,
entitled an act to amend and re-enact section 1 of an act approved March 28,
1903, in relation to changing the boundaries of wards in cities and for in-
creasing or diminishing the number thereof, and to validate and establish
the wards in those cities which have been redistricted into wards since the
adoption of the present Constitution, and to prevent gerrymandering.

Approved March 10, 1906.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act
approved March twelfth, nineteen hundred and four, entitled an act to
amend and re-enact section one of an act approved March twenty-eighth.
nineteen hundred and three, in relation to changing the boundaries of
wards in cities and for increasing or diminishing the number thereof. be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

$1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That in each
city in this Commonwealth there shall be as many wards as the city
council may establish: provided, however, that whenever, by the last
United States census or other enumeration made bv authority of law.
it shall appear that the population in any ward exceeds that of any other
ward by as much as three thousand inhabitants, or whenever in the
opinion a the council it is necessary, or whenever the corporate limits

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194 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY.

of the city shall be extended or contracted, if necessary, it shall be the
duty of the city council to redistrict the city into wards, or so change
the boundaries of existing wards, or so increase or diminish the number
of wards as that no one ward shall exceed any other ward in population
by more than three thousand inhabitants. But in no case shall the city
council redistrict the city into wards or change the boundaries of ex-
isting wards, except in so far as it may be necessary to change such
houndaries for the purpose of attaching newly annexed territory to such
existing ward or wards as may be contiguous thereto, oftener than once
every five years, except upon a recorded vote of three-fourths of the
members elected to the council, or three-fourths of the members elected
to each branch thereof, when the council is composed of two branches;
and in every such case the reason therefor shall be set forth in the ordi-
nance providing for such redistricting: and provided, that whenever the
city shall be so redistricted the judge of the corporation or hustings
court shall appoint three commissioners, whose duty it shall be to re-
arrange and revise the registration books of said city, so as to place each
registered voter on the proper precinct and ward registration hooks, and
for this purpose the registrars shall, upon the order of the corporation
court or judge thereof, deliver to the commissioners so appointed the
registration books for the purposes aforesaid. The commissioner shall
receive such compensation as the judge of the corporation court may
allow to be paid by the city, together with all other expenses incurred
thereby. A mandamus shall lie on behalf of any citizen to compel the
performance by the council of the duty so prescribed.

2. In all cases in which cities have been redistricted into wards, or in
which the boundary lines of existing wards have been changed, the
ordinances of the said councils in so doing, which were first adopted since
the present Constitution took effect, are hereby validated; and said wards
as designated and established thereby, are hereby declared to be the ex-
isting wards of said cities, and the time within which the same may be
again altered or changed, or said cities redistricted, shall be computed
from the date of the adoption of said ordinances, respectively.

3. No ordinance of any city redistricting the same into wards, or
changing the bounds of existing wards, which may be adopted between
the passage of this act and the time when the same shall take effect,
shall be valid unless the same be adopted by a recorded vote of three-
fourths of all the members elected to the council, or three-fourths of all
the members elected to each branch, where the council is composed of two
branches.

4. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby re-
pealed.