Chap. 4.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections {2 and 203 of the Code of
Virginia, as heretofore amended, relating to absent voters. [IS B 13]

Approved January 14, 1930

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
two hundred and two and two hundred and three of the Code as here-
tofore amended be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 202. Any duly qualified voter who will, in the regular and
orderly course of his business, profession, occupation, or other personal
affairs, or on vacation or his attendance as a student at any school or
institution of learning, be absent from the city, town, or from the pre-
cinct in which he is entitled to vote, if in a county, and any such voter
who may be physically unable to go in person to the polls on the day
of election, may vote in any primary, special or general election, in
accordance with the provisions of the following sections of this chap-
ter, as amended:

Section 203. He shall make application in writing for a ballot to
the registrar of his precinct, not less than five nor more than sixty
days prior to the primary, special or general election in which he de-
sires to vote, if he be within the confines of the United States, or not
less than sixty days nor more than ninety days, if he be in the Philip-
pines, Hawaii, Porto Rico, the Canal Zone, or in territory over which
the United States has no jurisdiction. The application may be handed
to the registrar in person, or forwarded to him by mail, and shall
contain necessary postage, or the correct amount in legal tender, neces-
sary for registering the ballot to him, and full directions for mailing
the same. But the failure to enclose necessary postage shall not render
void a vote otherwise legally cast.

If such application be made by a voter in person when he is within
his city, town or precinct, the same shall be accompanied by an affidavit
to the effect that such voter expects to be absent from his city, town or
precinct, on the day of the election, for some one of the reasons set
forth in the preceding section, or that he will be physically unable
to go in person to the polls on the day of election. ,

Any such application, when signed and delivered, or returned to
the registrar, shall be construed to be an offer by the voter signing the
same, to vote in the said election.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
passage and shall apply to any special election held after the passage of
this act, whether application for ballots to be used in such election,
were made before or after this act takes effect; and any such ballot,
which shall be duly returned to the registrar, shall be counted if the
elector shall be qualified to vote in such special election, and shall have
substantially complied with all the provisions of this chapter.