Chap. 83.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 181 and section 238 as hereto-
fore amended of the Code of Virginia, relating to election poll books and

ballots. [H B 54]
Approved March 5, 1934

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
one hundred and eighty-one and section two hundred and thirty-eight
as heretofore amended of the Code of Virginia be amended and re-
enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 181. Whenever the poll books and ballots required by law
to be returned to the clerks’ offices in this State shall have remained
in the said offices for as much as one year, it shall be lawful, if no
election contest or other proceeding be pending in which such books and
ballots may be needed as evidence for the clerks of the said offices
to destroy such books and ballots upon an order of their respective
courts to such effect.

Section 238. After canvassing the votes, the judges, before they
adjourn, shall put under cover the poll books, seal the same, and direct
one of them to the clerk of the circuit court of the county or the clerk
of the corporation court of the city, as the case may be, in which the
election is held, and the poll books thus sealed and directed, together
with the ballots strung, enclosed and sealed, shall be conveyed by one
of the judges, to be determined by lot if they cannot otherwise agree,
to the clerk to whom it is directed, on the day following the election,
there to remain, unless sooner destroyed by order of the court as pro-
vided in section one hundred and eighty-one, for the use of the per-
sons who may be lawfully entitled to inspect the same. The other poll
book shall be directed to the chairman of the city or county committee
of the party for which the primary is held. The clerk to whom the
ballots are delivered, as aforesaid, shall, without breaking the seal,
deposit them in his office; he shall not allow the same to be inspected
unless in cases of contested elections, or unless they become necessary
to be used in evidence, and then only on the order of the court given
jurisdiction of such contest, or as otherwise provided by law. The
judges of election shall be responsible for all the primary ballots
delivered to them. If from any cause the judges of election shall fail
to make returns, as provided by this section, within the time limited
by the following section for the commissioners to meet and open the
returns, it shall be the duty of the clerk to whose office such returns
ought to have been made to dispatch a special messenger to obtain
such returns, who shall be subject to the same penalties and entitled tc
the same compensation as a judge of election for such services.