Chap. 48.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4, sub-section 1, of an act
entitled an act to provide a new charter for the city of Portsmouth, ap-
proved March 10, 1908, as amended by an act approved HeUruany, 1918.

B 97]
Approved February 10, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
four, sub-section one of an act entitled an act to provide a new charter
for the city of Portsmouth, approved March tenth, nineteen hundred
and eight, as amended by an act approved February twenty-third,
nineteen hundred and eighteen, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as follows:

4. The recall of elective offcers—Any elective officer of the city
may be removed from office at any time after one year from the be-
ginning of his term of office by the electors qualified to vote for a
successor for such incumbent. The procedure to effect such removal
shall be as herein provided;

(1) A petition signed by twenty per centum of the qualified
electors of the city, and demanding the election of a successor of the
officer sought to be removed, and shall be filed with the clerk of the
court of hustings, which petition shall contain a general statement of
the grounds upon which the election of a successor is sought. Such
petition may be filed at any time after one year has elapsed since
the beginning of the term of the official sought to be removed. Each
signer shall add to his signature his place of residence, giving street
and number if any. Such petition may be in the form of separate
papers, but each separate paper to which signatures are appended
shall contain at the top thereof the original petition or duplicate state-
ment thereof, and when bound together and offered for filing, such

separate papers shall be deemed to constitute one petition with respect
to the election of the successor of the officer or officers named therein.
One of the signers of such petition shall make oath before a proper
official that the statements made therein are true, as he believes, and
upon such separate paper, the circulator of the petition to which
signatures are appended shall make oath that each signature to such
paper is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to
be, and that it was signed in his presence. :