Chap. 831.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 56 and 9 of an act entitled an
act to provide for a method of voting by ballot, approved March 6, 1804, as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved March 4, 1896.

Approved March 3, 1898.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section five
of an act entitled an act to provide for a method of voting by ballot,
approved March sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved March fourth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-six, be amended and re-enacted so as to re: id as follows:

§ od. Any person who intends to be a candidate for any oflice, state or

national, to be elected by the electors of the state at large or of a con-
pressional district shall, at least twenty davs before such election, notify
the secretary of the commonwealth in writing, attested by two wit-
nesses, of such intention, designating the oflice for which he is a candi-
date. Such written notice shall be signed by the said candidate, but if
he be incapable of writing his proper signature, then some mark adopted
by him as his signature shall be acknowledged hefore a justice of the
peace or other oflicer authorized to take acknowle ‘dgments to deeds and
in the same manner. <Any person who intends to be a candidate for any
(flice not embraced in the foregoing at any election shall give notice at
least twenty days before such election to the clerk or clerks of the county
-~ hustings courts of the county or counties or the city or cities whose

vors vote for the candidate for such oflice, which notice shall in all
i. vets be in the same form as that above described required to be given
to tne secretary of the commonwealth.

No person not announcing his eandidacy for above shall have his name
printed on the ballots provided for such election. On receipt of the
foregoing notice it shall be the duty of the secretary of the common-
wealth to notify the secretary of each electoral board of each county or
city of the state or of said congressional district, and it shall be the duty
of said clerk or clerks to notify the secretary of the electoral boards of
their respective counties or cities, which notices shall be sent by the
secretary of the commonwealth and clerks immediately after the time
has expired in which candidates may. give notice of their candidacy as
prescribed by this section. Said clerks shall send copies of the original
notices of candidacy to the secretary of electoral board when they notify
him. Whenever any secretary of an electoral board is elected he shall
at once notify the secretary of the commonwealth of his election and in-
form him as to his postoflice address.

$9. It shall be the duty of the electoral board, as soon as possible
after the passage of this act, to procure and adopt a seal, which may be
changed from time to time in the discretion of said board, which said
<eal shall not be less than two inches in diameter. Said board shall
meet as soon as convenient after the printing of the ballots, as provided
in the preceding section, of which meeting the judge of the county or
corporation court shall be notified, and at which there shall be present
the said judge and the members of the said board, but no other persons.
And gaid judge shall thereupon enter of record upon the minutes of the
electoral board an affidavit stating that said ballots were counted and
sealed in his presence in the manner prescribed by law. And in the
event of the inability, through sickness or other incapacity, of the said
judge to discharge’ any of the duties imposed by this act, 1t shall be law-
ful for the said duties to be performed by the judge of some other county
or corporation. At this meeting the member of the board who shall
have secured from the printer the ballots as required by section six shall
deliver said ballots to said board. The ballots shall then be carefully
counted by said boards, and the number thereof entered by the secretary
of the board in a book provided by him and kept for such purpose. The
board shall affix its seal to every ballot printed as above provided upon
the side reverse from that upon which the names of the candidates ap-
pear. Of the said ballots they shall make as many packages as there
are voting precincts in said county or city, one for each precinct, which
package shall contain twice as many official ballots as there are voters
registered at the precinct for which it is intended. Each of these pack-
ages shall be securely sealed so that the ballots shall be invisible, and so
that they could not be readily opened without detection. Upon each of
said packages shall be endorsed the name of the precinct for which it is
intended, and the number of ballots therein contained. The packages
designed for the various precincts shall remain in the exclusive possession
of the secretary of the board until delivered by him to the judges or one
of the judges of elections of the several precincts as hereinafter provided,
or until he shall have delivered the same to one of the other members of
the board, to be delivered to the judge or judges, as required by section
ten of this act. The secretary of said electoral board shall keep in his
sole custody the seal or stamp of said board, and in a sealed package, to
be opened only in the presence of the electoral board and the judge of
the county or corporation court when in the discharge of their duties as
prescribed in this section.
3. This act shall be in force from its passage.