Chap. 396.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 203 of the Code of Virginia,
as amended, relating to absent voters. [H 30]

Approved March 31, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section two hundred three of the Code of Virginia, as
amended, be amended and re-enacted, as follows :

Section 203. (a) He shall make application in writing for a ballot
to the registrar of his precinct, not less than five nor more than sixty
days prior to the primary, special or general election in which he de-
sires to vote, if he be within the confines of the United States, or not
less than five days nor more than ninety days, if he be in the Philippines,
Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, or in territory over which the
United States has no jurisdiction. The application may be handed to
the registrar in person, or forwarded to him by mail, and shall contain
necessary postage, or the correct amount in legal tender, necessary for
registering the ballot to him, and full:directions for mailing it. But
the failure to enclose necessary postage shall not render void a vote
otherwise legally cast.

(b) If the application be made by a voter in person when he is
within his city, town or precinct, it shall be accompanied by an affidavit
to the effect that he expects to be absent from his city, town or precinct,
on the day of the election, for some one of the reasons set forth in the
preceding section, or that he will be physically unable to go in person
to the polls on the day of election.

(c) Any such application, when signed and delivered, or returned
to the registrar, shall be construed to be an offer by the voter signing it
to vote in the election.

(d) The provisions of this section as amended shall apply to any
special election held after the effective date of this act regardless of
whether or not application in a particular case for a ballot to be used
in the special election was made before or after the effective date of
this act; and any such ballot which is duly returned to the registrar
shall be counted if the elector be qualified to vote in the election and
has substantially complied with all the provisions of this chapter.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.

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