CHAP. 392.—An ACT to authorize the qualified voters of the county
of Hanover to vote on the question of removing the county court-
house of said county to the town of Ashland.

Approved March 3, 1886.

Whereas numerous citizens of the county of Hanover have
memorialized the general assembly of Virginia that the sense
of the people of the said county should be taken upon the
change of the location of the court-house of the said county;
therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, .That
it shall be the duty of the officers conducting elections in the
county of Hanover, at the time and places for holding the first
general election hereafter in said county, to prepare a separate
ballot-box, in which shall be deposited the ballots of the quali-
fied voters who shall desire to vote upon the question of said
removal. The said ballots shall be respectively as follows: for
the town of Ashland, and for the present location. Each bal-
lot cast which shall have written or printed thereon, for the
town of Ashland, shall-be deemed and taken as a vote for the
removal of the seat of justice of the county of Hanover to the
town of Ashland; and each ballot having written or printed
thereon, for the present location, shall be taken as a vote against
the removal of said seat of justice. The officers conducting
said election shall receive the ballots of every person applying
to vote, who shall be qualified according to the constitution and
laws of this commonwealth to vote for the officers, or members
of congress, then to be elected, and shall keep said polls open
as long as the polls for said general election is kept open; and
proceed with, certify and return the same to the clerk of county
court of Hanover in the same manner, and shall be liable to
the same penalties for neglect and failure therein as prscribed
by law in relation to the officers then to be elected: provided,
however, that the failure of the said officers conducting said
election to keep separate poll-books, or to return and certify
the said vote upon such poll-books, shall not affect the legality
of said election upon the question of said removal of said seat
of justice; but said return may be made on paper, or some
other convenient manner, in writing or figures.
2. It shall be the duty of the officers conducting said election
to meet at the clerk’s office of the county court of said county,
on Tuesday next succeeding said election, and then and there
proceed in the presence of each other to scrutinize, purge and
correct the ballots taken on the subject of the removal of the
said seat of justice, and decide upon the legality or illegality of
the ballots so taken, and they shall have power to sit from day
to day until their duties shall have been discharged; and having
stricken therefrom such ballots as, in the opinion of a majority
of such officers, may have been illegally voted, said officers
shall count the ballots which remain unstricken, and shall verify
the same by taking and subscribing, before some officer author-
ized to administer oaths in the county of Hanover, an.affidavit
to the following effect: We do hereby make oath that we have
carefully examined the ballots in the boxes, cast upon the ques-
tion of the removal of the seat of justice of Hanover county,
and that we have stricken therefrom no ballots which, in the
opinion of the majority of us, were properly cast, and that no
ballots remain which a majority of us concur in believing are
not entitled so to be according to the provisions of the act en-
titled an act to authorize the qualified voters of the county of
Hanover to vote on the question of removing the county court-
house of said county to the town of Ashland. Sworn to before
me this day of , eighteen hundred and eighty-six.
And it shall be the duty of said officers to return the said
counted ballots, so verified, to the clerk of the county court of
Hanover, to be preserved by him in his office; and the said
officers shall at the same time certify to the county court which
of the locations aforesaid received the largest number of ballots.
If the town of Ashland shall have received the largest number of
votes, and the votes cast for the said town of Ashland shall be
equal to a majority of the votes actually cast at said general
election, then the said town of Ashland shall be, to all intents
and purposes, the place of holding court in the county of
Hanover, and for conducting the business incident thereto,
from and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and
eighty-eight.

3. When it shall be ascertained that a majority of the votes
at the said election were in favor of said removal of the seat of
justice of Hanover county to the town of Ashland, if the vote
cast for said removal be equal to a majority of the votes actu-
ally cast at said election, the board of supervisors for the county
of Hanover, shall immediately proceed to select and acquire,
by purchase or otherwise, a suitable lot in the town of Ashland,
not exceeding five acres, for the site of the new. seat of justice,
and shall cause a court-house, clerk’s office, and other necessary
public buildings and fixtures to be erected thereon, as soon
thereafter as practicable.

4. That said board of supervisors shall cause to be conveyed
to them, and to their successors in office, by good and sufficient
deed, for the use and benefit of said county, the said lot or par-
cel of land acquired as aforesaid, and shall sell, upon such
terms as it may deem proper, the land and appurtenances now
occupied as the site of the seat of justice for the said county,
and appropriate the proceeds of said sale towards defraying the
expenses of procuring the land and erecting the aforesaid build-
ings herein required to be erected as the new seat of justice:
provided, that if said board of supervisors shall deem it advisa-
ble to have the buildings and fixtures at the present seat of jus-
tice, or any part thereof, removed to the site of the new seat of
justice, the said board is hereby authorized and empowered to
have the same so removed.

_ 5. The board of supervisors of said county of Hanover, is
hereby authorized and empowered to make a levy or levies for
such sum or sums of money as may be required to defray the
expenses of removing said seat of justice of Hanover county,
under the provisions of this act; but the amount necessary to
be raised for the purpose of defraying the expenses of said re-
moval, shall be so levied as to be collectible in three equal in-
stalments:—the third in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-
seven, one-third in eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, and one-
third in eighteen hundred and eighty-nine.

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