Chap. 478.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 158 of the Code of Vir-
ginia. [H B 136].

Approved March 25, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
one hundred and fifty-eight of the Code of Virginia be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows: .

Sec. 158. Duties of electoral boards, seal, et cetera.—It shall be
the duty of the electoral board to procure and adopt a seal, if there
be not one already adopted by the electoral board of such city or
county, which seal may be changed from time to time in the discre-
tion of said board, and 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 for in this chapter, of which meeting the chairman
of the board of supervisors of the county or the commissioner of
accounts of the corporation or circuit court of the city, shall be notified,
and at which there shall be present the said chairman or commissioner
and the members of the said board, but no other person; and in the
event of the inability, through sickness or other incapacity, of the
said chairman or either of said commissioners to discharge any of
the duties imposed by this section, it shall be lawful for the said
duties to be performed by some other member of the board of super-
visors of said county, or the commissioner of accounts of the cor-
poration or circuit court of some other city. At this meeting the
members of the board who shall have secured from the printer the
ballots as required by section one hundred and fifty-six shall deliver
said ballots to said board. The ballots shall then be carefully counted
bv said board 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 candi-
dates appear, and said chairman or commissioner shall thereupon
/96 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, [va.

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. 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 packages 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 election of the several precincts as provided bv the
following section, or until he shall have delivered the same to one or
the other members of the board to be delivered to the judge or judges
as required by this chapter. 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 chairman or other member of the board of supervisors
or the commissioner of accounts of the corporation or circuit court
when in the discharge of their duties as prescribed by this chapter.