Chap. 3.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 585 of the Code of Virginia, as
amended and re-enacted by an act of the general assembly of Virginia, entitled
an act to amend and re-enact sections 581 and 585 of the Code of Virginia, ap-
proved December 10, 1903.

Approved February 2, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section five
hundred and eighty-five of the Code of Virginia, as amended by an act
of the general assembly of Virginia, entitled an act to amend and re-
enact sections five hundred and eighty-one and five hundred and eighty-
five of the Code of Virginia, approved December tenth, nineteen hundred
and three, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 585. How elections ordered in a town; if a majority against license,
none is to be granted.—If any town of not less than one thousand in-
habitants, whether constituting a separate election district or not, shall
desire to avail itself of the provisions of this chapter, a petition of such
of the qualified voters of such town as shall be equal in number to one-
fourth of the number of the persons voting at the preceding regular mu-
nicipal election may be presented, in term or vacation, to the judge of the
circuit or corporation court having jurisdiction of said town, who shall
thereupon order a special election in conformity with the provisions of
the four preceding sections; and if it appear from the abstracts and re-
turns that a majority of the votes cast at such election were against
liquor license, no license shall be granted for the sale of wines, spirituous,
or malt liquors, or any mixture thereof, within the corporate limits of
such town. After an election in any town has been held under this chap-
ter, whether before or after the tenth day of December, nineteen hundred
and three, no other election shall be held in said town until after the
expiration of two years from the date of such election. And whenever,
prior to December tenth, nineteen hundred and three, a local option elec-
tion has been held in any magisterial district in which any such town
participated, no other election under this chapter shall be held in such
town within two years from the date of such election.

2. In order to make the law uniform in the counties and towns of the
State, and to prevent the holding of local option elections in towns be-
tween the date of the passage of this act and ninety days after the ad-
journment of this legislature, this is declared to be an emergency act, and
shall be in force from its passage.