Chap. 239.—An ACT requiring the officers conducting elections ia
Dinwiddie county to submit the question of continuing or repealing
the fence laws to the voters of voting districts of Dinwiddie county.

Approved Mach 29, 1877.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be the duty of the several officers conducting elec-
tions in the different voting districts of Dinwiddie county, at
the time and places for holding the next general clection, to
take the sense of the qualified voters of their respective
voting districts, upon the question of continuing or repealing
the act passed January twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and
sixty-six, relating to fences, and for the protection of crops,
and for this purpose to prepare two additional ballot boxes,
one labelled freeholders and the other non-freeholders, and
two additional poll books, one labelled poll of frecholders and
the other poll of non-frecholders. The judge of election re-
ceiving the ballots shall enquire of the voter if he is a free-
holder; and if so, deposit his ballot in the box labelled free-
holders, and the clerk sball record his name-on the poll of
freebolders; and if he is not a freeholder, his ballot shall be
deposited in the box labelled non-freebolders, and his name
recorded on the poll-book of non-frecholders. The said bal-
lots shall be respectively as follows: “For the present fence
Jaw;” “Against the present fence law.” The certificate of
the judges of election shall beas follows: We hereby certify
that at the election held at , —— ballots were cast by
the frecholders for the present fence law, and ballots
were cast by freeholders against the present fence law; and
ballots were cast by non-freeholders for the present
fence law, and ballots were cast by non-freeholders
against the present fence law.

a rt } Clerks.
EK. F.)
a. H. + Judges.
TJ.

2. The manner of canvassipg the ballots cast 6n said ques-
tion, and making returns and abstracts of the results thereot,
Shall conform in all other respects to the general election
laws of this state.

3. The judge of the county court of said county shall in-
spect such returns and abstracts of the ballots so cast on the
question aforesaid, and if it shall appear that a majority of
the ballots cast in any voting district, or voting districta, are
in favor of repoaling said act; and alsv that a majority of
the ballots cast by freeholders in such voting district or
voting districts, are in favor of repealing said act, the said
act shall be and is hereby repealed in said voting district or
voting districts, and the judge of the county court of said
county, at the next term of said court, or as soon thereafter
as may be; shall enter of record an order to that effect: pro-
vided that said repeal shall not take effect for two years after
the date of said eloction day.

4. The freeholders through whose lands, or along the lines
of whose lands the line of any voting district or voting dis-
tricts in which said act may be repealed passes, shall be and
are hereby required to build and keep up a lawful fence alon
such portion of their respective lines from the point on which
the line of said district strikes their said lines on one side, to
the point at which it strikes said line on the other side; and
if any such freeholder shall fail to do so, the board of super-
visors, on information to that effect, shall assess a tax on said
freeholder, to be collected as other taxes, to pay for building
the same, and cause the same to be built or repaired, and the
amount of such tax not required for the said fence shall be
refunded to said :frecholder, and said freeholder shall erect
and keep up a suitable gate wherever such fence crosses any
public road.

5. This act shall be in force from its passage, and all acts
and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby re-
pealed. :