Chap. 56.—An ACT to authorize and empower the electoral board of each county
adjoining a city having a population of at least 180,000 inhabitants, as shown
by the last preceding United States census, to appoint a general registrar for
such county; to provide for the rights, powers, duties and compensation of
such general registrar; to provide the effect of such appointments; and to
provide how the office of general registrar may be abolished. {H B 26]

Approved February 24, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. The electoral board of each county adjoining a city
having a population of at least one hundred and eighty thousand in-
habitants, as shown by the last preceding United States census, may,
in its discretion, at its regular meeting in the month of May, nineteen
hundred and thirty-six, and every alternate year thereafter, appoint
a general registrar for such county, who shall be a discreet citizen and
resident of the county for which he is appointed. The board of super-
visors or other governing body of any such county, with the consent
of the electoral board of the county, may impose other duties upon
the registrar, provided such other duties do not conflict with his duties
as registrar. Said registrar shall hold office for two years from the
first day of July following his appointment, and until his successor is
duly qualified, except as provided in section six of this act. The ap-
pointment of such general registrar shall automatically abolish the office
of registrar in each election district in the said county, now provided
for by law, as of the first day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-
six, if such appointment be theretofore made, or as of the date of such
appointment, if thereafter made. Each of such registrars mentioned in
the preceding sentence, upon the appointment of the general registrar
provided for in this act, or the abolition of his office, shall deliver to
said general registrar all books, papers and documents pertaining to
their respective offices.

Section 2. Such general registrar, subject to the approval of the
electoral board, may appoint such assistants as may be necessary for
the performance of the duties of his office, and said assistants are here-
by authorized to do all things necessary for the registration of quali-
fied voters, and their compensation shall be fixed by the board of
supervisors or other governing body of the county and paid out of
the general funds of the county.
Section 3. It shall be the duty of said general registrar to maintain
in the court house of the county, or at such other place as shall be
designated by the board of supervisors or other governing body of the
county for which he is appointed, an office wherein all qualified voters
of such county may be registered. The board of supervisors or other
governing body of the county for which he is appointed shall furnish
the general registrar a suitable office in the court house or in such
other place as the board shall determine.

Section 4. Such general registrar shall keep separate registration
books for each election district in said county, and, except as other-
wise provided in this act, perform all of the duties now required by
law to be performed by the registrars of the election districts of said
county.

Section 5. All fees collected by the general registrar or any of his
assistants shall be paid into the county treasury, and the board of
supervisors or other governing body of the county shall allow the
general registrar a salary for performing the duties required of him.

Section 6. If any electoral board shall appoint a general registrar
in pursuance of this act, it may, at the expiration of the term of any
such general registrar, abolish such office by declining to appoint a
successor and giving notice of such intention to the incumbent, if any,
in which event the preceding sections of this act shall cease to be
operative in such county, and the registration of voters in such county
thereafter shall in all respects conform to the general law, other than
this act, then in force.

Section 7. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from
its passage.