Chap. 367.—An ACT to submit the question of a hog law to the voters of Coles
district, Prince Wilham county.

Approved February 17, 1898.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an elec-
tion shall be held in the Coles district, Prince William county, on the
fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, by the
judges of election in said district, at the several voting places therein to
enable the qualified voters of said district to declare by their votes whether
or not they will agree to a law to be known as the hog law: provided,
that notice shall be given by the sheriff posting the times and places of
voting on the front door of the courthouse, and at the several voting
places in said district, thirty days before the day of election; and provi-
ded further, that a separate hallot-box shall be used in which alone all
ballots voted on this question shall be deposited.

2. The manner of receiving and canvassing the ballots at such election
on said question, and making abstracts and returns thereof, shall conform
in all respects to the general election Jaw of the state, except that the
certificates of the judges shall be as follows:

We hereby certify that at the election held ——— votcs were cast for
hog Jaw and ——— votes were cast against hog law.
Clerks. Judes.

And except further that every elector shall vote by ballot which he
himself shall provide, and each person offering to vote shall deliver a single
ballot to one of the judges in the presence of the other two Judges. The
ballot shall be a white ticket and containing on the face of it, written or
printed, the words ‘for hog law’ or the words ‘‘azainst hog law,’? ac-
cordingly as the elector may elect. The judges to whom any ballot is
delivered shall, upon receipt thereof, pronounce with an audible voice
the name of the person from whom the ballot is received, and if the
name of such person is found upon the registration book, and there be
ho objection made, the said judges shall, without opening said ballot or
permitting the same to be examined, except to ascertain whether it is a
single ballot, deposit the same in the ballot-box; whereupon the name
of the elector shall be checked on the registration book by one of the
judges and entered by the clerks of election on the poll books and cor-
rectly numbered in accordance with the number of electors theretofore
recorded,

3. If it shall appear from the abstracts and returns of said election
that a majority of the qualified voters of said district voting upon said
question are in favor of the hog law, then it shall be the law of the said
district; and all acts and parts of acts repugnant to this act be, and are
hereby, repealed in the mits aforesaid.

4. 1f any swine should trespass upon any lands in the limits afore-
sald, the owner or manager of said animals shall be liable for all damage
or injury done by the said animals to the owner of the crops or lands
upon which they may trespass, whether the said animals wander from
the premises of the owner in the county or district in which the trespass
Was committed or from another county or district.

The damaves and awards in all cases arising under this act shall be
ascertamed in the manner and under laws now in force for trespass and
damage.

6. This act shall be in foree from its passage.