Chap. 254.--An ACT to amend and re-enact section 154 of the Code of Vir-
vinia, as amended by an act approved March 21, 1924. in relation to the
duties of candidates for office in general and special elections. [H B 121]

Approved March 23, 1926.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
one hundred and fifty-four of the Code of Virginia, as amended by an
act approved March twenty-first, nineteen hundred and twenty-four,
be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 154. Duty of candidates for office.—Any person who
intends to be a candidate for any office, State or national, to be elected
by the electors of the State at large or of a congressional district, shall,
at least sixty days before such election, if it be a general election, and
at least thirty days before such election if it be a special election,
notify the secretary of the Commonwealth, in writing, attested by
two witnesses, of such intention, designating the office for which he is |
a candidate. Such written notice shall be signed by the said candi-
date, but, if he be incapable of writing his proper signature, then some
mark adopted by him as his signature shall be acknowledged before
some officer authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds and in the
same manner. Any person who intends to be a candidate for any
office not embraced in the foregoing, at any election, shall give notice
at least sixty days before such election, if it be a general election, and
at least thirty days before such election if it be a special election, to
the county clerk or clerks of the county or counties, and to the clerk
or clerks of the corporation courts of the city or cities whose electors
vote for such office, which notice shall in all respects be in the same
form as that above described required to be given to the secretary of
the Commonwealth. No person not announcing his candidacy as
above, or who is not qualified to vote in the election in which he offers
as a candidate, shall have his name printed on the ballots provided
for such election, unless he be a party primary nominee. On receipt
of the foregoing notice it shall be the duty of the secretary of the
Commonwealth to notify the secretary of each electoral board of each
county and citv 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 and cities, which notices
shall be sent by the secretary of the Commonwealth and clerks im-
mediately 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 the electoral board when they notify him. Whenever any secretary
of the electoral board is elected, he shall at once notify the secretary
of the Commonwealth of his election, and inform him as to his post-
office address.