Chap. 48.—An ACT to authorize and provide for a special election in the county
of Pulaski as to the removal of the court-house of said county.

Approved January 22, 1894.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That whereas
the court-house of Pulaski county has been destroyed by fire, it shal!
be the duty of the judge ofthe circuit court of Pulaski county, upon
the petition of not less than one hundred qualified voters of said
county, to order a special election in the ssid county, to be held at the
several voting precincts thereof, on a day to be designated by him,
within thirty days after the presentation of said petition to him for
the purpose of taking the sense of the qualified voters of said county
whether the county-seat of said county be removed from the town of
Newbern at all; and, if so removed, whether to the town of Pulaski,
in said county, or to the town of Dublin, in said county.

2. Upon the presentation of said petition the said judge shall, with-
out unnecessary delay, enter an order in vacation ordering such spe-
cial election to be held on a day designated by him in said order
within forty-five days after the entering of said order, but said order
shall be entered not less than thirty days prior to said election.

The said order shall be certified by the said judge of the said cir-
cuit court to the clerk of said court, to be by him entered in the order
book of said county. And the said clerk of said court shall forth-
with furnish to the sheriff of said county a copy of the said order, and
said sheriff of said county shall proceed without delay to give notice
of the time of holding said election by publication, once a week for
four successive weeks, in some newspaper published in said county.

3. The said election shall be superintended and held, returns made
and certified, votes canvassed, results ascertained and made known
under the same penalty and subject to the same regulations as are
now prescribed by law for special elections, except that the result of
said election shall be certified to the judge of the circuit court of
Pulaski county.

4. The electors voting at said election who shall favor removal of
aid county-seat from the town of Newbern to the town of Pulaski,
n said county, shall deposit with the judges of election, at their re-
spective voting precincts, a ballot on which is written or printed,
‘For the removal of the court-house to the town of Pulaski.” And
such electors who favor the removal of the county-seat to Dublin, in
said county, shall deposit a ballot as aforesaid, upon which is writ-
ten or printed the words, “For removal of the court-house to Dub-
lin.” And such electors that are opposed to the removal of the
court-house from the town of Newbern shall in like manner deposit
a ballot upon which is written or printed the words, “Against the re-
moval of the court-house.”

Each ballot that shall have written or printed thereon, “For re-
moval of the court-house to the town of Pulaski,” shall be counted
as a vote for the removal of the court-house and county-seat to the
town of Pulaski, in said county. And each ballot on which is writ-
ten or printed the words, “For removal of the court-house to Dub-
lin,” shall be counted as a vote for a removal of the court-house and
county-seat to Dublin, in said county. And each ballot on which is
written or printed the words, “Against the removal of the court-
house,” shall be counted as a vote against the removal of the court-
house from Newhbern. And if three-fifths or more of the votes cast
be cast for the removal of the court-house to the town of Pulaski,
then the court-house and county-seat shall be removed to the town
of Pulaski, in said county, and the county-seat shall be thencefor-
ward at the said town of Pulaski. Orif three-fifths or more of the
votes cast be cast for the removal of the court-house to the town of
Dublin, in said county, then the court-house shall be removed from
the said town of Newbern to the town of Dublin, and the county-
seat of said county shall thenceforward be at the said town of Dub-
lin, in said county. But if more than two-fifths of the votes cast be
cast against the removal of the court-house, then the county-seat
shall remain at the town of Newbern. In the event that three-fifths
or more of the votes cast shall not be cast either for the removal of
the court-house to Pulaski or to Dublin, but if the combined vote in
favor of Pulaski and Dublin shall be three-fifths or more of the votes
cast in said election, then and in that event the circuit judge of the
county aforesaid shall immediately after the said election, and
within twenty days thereafter, enter an order in vacation in the
clerk’s office of said county ordering another election to be held
within forty days after the entering of said order; said election to
be held and canvassed and result ascertained in like manner after
like notice as the aforesaid election.

At the said second election the electors of the said county of Pu-
laski voting shall each deposit a ballot with the judges of their re-
spective voting precincts in said county upon which is written or
printed the words, “ For the town of Pulaski,” or “For the town of
Dublin, as the case may be, and the town receiving the highest num-
ber of votes cast in the said second election between the towns of
Pulaski and Dublin shall be thenceforward the county-seat of said
Pulaski county, and the said last election shall be returned and cer-
tified as provided for in the first election herein provided for, and all
necessary orders shall be entered by said circuit judge to carry into
effect the result of said election.

5. The said town of Pulaski and certain citizens thereof having
proposed, as it and they do now propose, to donate to said county of
‘ulaski, in the event of the removal of said court-house to said town
f Pulaski, so much land conveniently located in said town of
-ulaski as may be necessary for a site for said court-house and jail,
nd to erect and construct, free of cost to said county, a safe and
uitable jail for the convenient accommodation of persons to be con-
ined therein, and to erect and construct free of cost to said county,
xcept as to the insurance money and proceeds of the sale of the
ourt-house lot and jail property in the town of Newbern as herein-
fter provided, a suitable court-house. Now, before the ordering of
he election hereinbefore provided for, there shall be presented to
he said judge of said circuit court a good and sufficient bond with
rood security executed by the said town of Pulaski, or some one for
t, payable to the county of Pulaski, approved by the said judge of
he circuit court in the penalty of twenty thousand dollars, condi-
ioned that in the event of a removal of said court-house to said
own of Pulaski the said town of Pulaski shall convey or cause to
e conveyed, by good and sufficient deed in fee simple, so much land
onveniently located in said town of Pulaski as may be necessary
or @ suitable site for said court-house and jail, and shall build and
construct, free of cost to said county, a safe and suitable jail for the
onvenient accommodation of persons to be confined therein, and the
ourt-house aforesaid, said jail to be built upon some portion of the
and donated and conveyed to said county as aforesaid. If aftera
rote in favor of a removal of said court-house to said town of Pulaski
he said town of Pulaski convey or cause to be conveyed within a
‘easonable time to said county, and build or cause to built as soon as
yracticable after said vote in favor of such removal of said court-
iouse, free of cost to said county, the jail and court-house as afore-
aaid, then this bond to be null and void, otherwise to remain in full
force and virtue, and said bond shall be filed with the clerk of the
sircuit court of Pulaski county.

Upon receipt of the certificate of the result of said election, the
said judge of the said circuit court shall cause the same to be en-
tered, either in term or vacation, in the order-book of the circuit
court for said county, and said judge of said circuit court shall
select and appoint three commissioners, one of whom shall be the
supervisor of the magisterial district of said county to which said
court-house shall be removed, one of whom shall be a citizen of the
town to which the same is removed, and the other of whom shall be
a citizen of the county outside of said town of Pulaski, whose duty
shall be to select a site in said town for said court-house and jail,
and the site selected by the said commissioners shall be accepted and
adopted as the site for the location of said court-house and jail.

The citizens of the town of Dublin proposing to donate a site, free
of cost, to the said county suitable for the court-house and jail in
the event that the said court-house be removed to said town of Dub-
lin, therefore, before any such election be held as to the town of
Dublin there shall be executed, by some person or persons, a bond in
the penalty of one thousand dollars ($1,000), payable to the county
of Pulaski, approved by the circuit judge, conditioned that there be
conveyed in fee simple, Within a reasonable time after it is deter-
mined that the said court-house be removed to said town of Dublin,
to the said county of Pulaski, a good and sufficient lot of land for
the aforesaid court-house and jail.

In the event of a removal of the court-house from the town of
Newbern to said town of Pulaski, the old jail at Newbern and the
lot upon which the same is located, and on which the old court-house
stood, shall be sold as provided by law, and the proceeds therefrom
and all insurance collected upon any policy of insurance carried by
the board of supervisors of said county upon the old court-house
shall be applied toward the building of a new court-house for said
county at such place as may be determined by the election hereinbe-
fore provided for; and it shall be the duty of the supervisors of said
county to provide a suitable place in the town to which the court-
house shall have been removed by the vote aforesaid for a court-
room and clerk’s office for said county, at which all courts of said
county shall be held until a new court-house shall have been built
and completed.

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