are deceitfully folded together, and any ballots which do not have indorsed thereon the name or initial of the judge who held the ballots, if the voter has marked more names than there are persons to be elected to an office, or if there shall be any mark on the ballot other than the cross-mark in a square opposite the name of a candidate, or other than the name or names of any candidates written by the voter on the ballot as provided in section 53, his ballot shall not be counted. Ballots not counted for such defects shall be marked "Defective" on the back thereof and shall be wrapped in a separate package and returned to the ballot box as hereinafter directed. No vote shall be counted for any candidate opposite whose name no cross-mark shall be placed, and no ballot shall be rejected solely because any part or portion of the cross-mark extends beyond the square, if the point of intersection of the cross-mark is within the square. They shall open the ballots, and all of them shall be canvassed separately by one of the judges sitting between two other judges, which judge call out each name and the office for which it is designated and the other judges looking at the ballot at the same time, and the clerks making tally of the same. When all the ballots have been canvassed in this manner, the election clerks shall compare their tallies together and ascertain the total number of votes received by each candidate, and when they agree upon the numbers, one of them shall announce in a loud voice to the judges the aggregate number of votes received by each candidate. If requested by any watcher or challenger present at any canvass, it shall be the duty of the judges and each of them to exhibit to such watcher or challenger any ballot cast, fully opened or in such condition and manner that he may fully read and examine the same, but the judge shall not allow any ballot to be taken from their hands. As the ballots are counted they shall be strung upon a strong twine. CHAPTER 202, ACTS OF 1896. 72. When the canvass of the ballots shall have been completed, and the clerks shall have announced to the judges the total number of votes received by each candidate, each of the judges of election, in turn, shall then proclaim in a loud voice the total number of votes received by each person voted for in such precinct and the office for which he is desig nated, and the number of votes for and the number of votes against any proposition which shall have been submitted to the vote of the people; such proclamation shall be prima facie evidence of the result of the canvass of such ballots. In the city of Baltimore the judges shall, immediately after such proclamation, deliver to a policeman on duty at the polling place a statement subscribed with their names, which shall be sealed up and forthwith conveyed by the said policeman to the office of the Board of Police Commissioners, whose duty it shall be to file and preserve the same. Such statements shall contain the total number of votes in the ballot box and the number of votes found therein for each and every candidate, and any person applying may inspect the same. 73. CHAPTER 544, ACTS OF 1906. The judges shall make duplicate statements or returns of the result of the canvass, each of which shall, if possible, be made upon a single sheet of paper and shall contain a caption stating the day on which and the number of the election precinct, and the county or ward of the city in relation to which said statement shall be made, and the time of opening and closing the polls of such precinct, and showing the whole number of votes in the ballot box, and the whole number of votes given for each person, designating the office for which they were given. Such statement shall be written or partly written and partly printed in words at length, and in case a proposition of any kind has been submitted to a vote at such election, such statements shall also show in like manner the whole number of votes cast for or against such proposition, and at the end of such statement shall be written a certificate that the same is correct in all respects; which certificate and each sheet of paper forming a part of the statement shall be subscribed by the judges. and clerks. If any judge or clerk shall decline to sign such return he shall state his reason therefor in writing and a copy thereof, signed by himself, shall be enclosed with each return. Each of the statements shall be enclosed in an envelope which shall then be securely sealed with sealing wax or other adhesive material, and each of the judges and clerks shall write his name across the fold of the envelope. One of the envelopes shall be directed to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the county or the Superior Court of Baltimore city, as the case may be, and one to the County Commissioners or to the Mayor of the city of Baltimore, as the case may be. Each set of tallies shall also be signed by the election clerks and the judges of election, and each shall be enclosed in an envelope securely signed and sealed as aforesaid, one of which shall be addressed to the Board of Supervisors of Elections and the other to the Register of Wills. If any judge or clerk shall decline to sign said set of tallies, or either of them, he shall state his reason therefor in writing and a copy thereof, signed by himself, shall be enclosed with each tally sheet. On the outside of every envelope shall be endorsed the statement that it contains the votes cast or the tallies, and for what precinet, ward, city, or county. 74. CHAPTER 202, ACTS OF 1896. The spoiled" and "not voted" ballots, as defined in section 68, shall be enclosed in a package to themselves and endorsed "spoiled and not voted''; the "rejected" and "defective" ballots, as defined in said setion, and section 71, shall be enclosed in a package to themselves, and endorsed rejected and defective." The poll books and the ballots cast and counted, as well as the two before mentioned packages of "spoiled," "not voted," "rejected" and "defective" ballots, shall be placed in the ballot box, and the ballot box shall then be locked and the key removed, whereupon the judges of elections shall all write their names upon a strip of paper of suicient length for the following purposes. Said strip of paper shall then be pasted over the keyhole of said ballot box and over the slit in the lid, in such manner that the signature shall extend across the place of the opening of the lid, and so that when the box is opened it will tear the paper and destroy the signatures, and so that when the key is inserted in the keyhole it will tear the paper so pasted over the keyhole. Such paper shall be securely fastened to the box with sealing wax or some other adhesive material. CHAPTER 202, ACTS OF 1896. 75. Thereupon, in Baltimore city, one of the judges shall take charge of the ballot box and its contents so enclosed, and another judge, representing the opposite political party, shall receive and hold the key thereof, and the package of unused ballots sealed up by said judges, as required by section 69; each of the two judges who do not have charge of the ballot box or key, shall take into his possession one of the registers, and also one of the statements of the votes cast, sealed up in its envelope as aforesaid, and each of the clerks shall take one of the tally sheets sealed up in an envelope as aforesaid, and the meeting of said judges and clerks shall then be dissolved. Before 12 o'clock noon of the day after such election in Baltimore city, the judge having possession of the ballot box shall deliver the same, with the contents aforesaid, to the Board of Supervisors of Elections, with the seal unbroken, and shall take a receipt therefor, and within the same period of time the judges, having possession of the key, the packages of unused ballots and of the registers shall deliver the same to the said Board of Supervisors and take a receipt therefor; and the two judges and clerks of elections in the city of Baltimore having possession of the statements and tallies shall within the same time deliver them to the respective officers to whom they are addressed, as aforesaid, and when so delivered, each of said judges and clerks shall take a receipt therefor. No judge or clerk shall receive pay for his services unless he produces the receipt herein provided for. The officers to whom the statements and tallies are so delivered shall securely keep the same with the seals unbroken. In the counties after the proceedings set forth in the preceding section in each precinct, one of the judges who is also an officer of registration, who shall be designated beforehand by the Supervisors of Elections, shall take charge of the ballot box and its contents so enclosed, and the other judge, who is also an officer of registration, shall receive and hold the key thereof, and the package of unused ballots sealed up by said judges; each o said two judges shall take into his possession one of the reg isters, and also one of the statements of the votes cast, sealed up in its envelope as aforesaid, and also one of the tally sheets sealed up in an envelope as aforesaid, and the meeting of the judges and clerks shall then be dissolved; before 12 o'clock noon of the second day after said election, the two judges so having custody thereof shall deliver said ballot boxes, keys, packages of unused ballots, registers, statements of votes cast and tally sheets to the proper officers in their respective counties, as herein before prescribed for the city of Baltimore and shall take similar receipts for the same. It shall be the duty of the Super visors of Elections in the several counties and in said city to attend at their respective offices on the days named for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this section. CHAPTER 544, ACTS OF 1906. 76. The Board of Supervisors of Elections, upon receiving a ballot box and the key thereof, shall note the conditions of the seal or stamp on each box, and make an entry of the facts touching the same, in a book to be kept by them, together with the name of the officer who delivered the box. They shall deliver all the ballot boxes so sealed, as aforesaid, to the clerks of the Circuit Court for their respective counties, or to the Board of Police Commissioners of Baltimore city, as the case may be, who shall put them in a secure place to which the public shall in no case have access, and shall safely keep them for the space of six months from the day of such delivery, at which time, unless previously notified to produce the same to be used in evidence in some contested election or judicial or legislative investigation then pending, said Board of Supervisors shall destroy, or cause to be destroyed, said ballots and poll books, also all of the said tallies and statements or returns, and shall record in the same book a certificate of the fact. CHAPTER 544, ACTS OF 1906. 77. It shall be the duty of the said County Commissioners, Clerks of Courts, Mayor, Register of Wills and Supervisors of Elections, respectively, to keep safely, under lock and key, the said original statements or returns and tally sheets until the Board of Canvassers for the county or city, as the case may be, shall have assembled and been organized according to law, as hereinafter provided; whereupon the Clerks of Court, County Commissioners, Mayor, Register of Wills and Supervisors of Elections, shall immediately deliver or transmit to such Board of Canvassers the said statements or returns and tally sheets in the sealed envelopes. CHAPTER 202, ACTS OF 1896. 78. The Supervisors of Elections shall constitute a board of canvassers for their county or city, as the case may be. CHAPTER 202, ACTS OF 1896. 79. On the Thursday next following every election between the hours of 12 o'clock noon and 1 o'lcock in the afternoon, the Board of County Canvassers shall meet at the usual place for holding the Circuit Court for the county, and the Board of Canvassers for Baltimore city shall meet at the usual place for holding the Superior Court, and shall respectively, elect a chairman and secretary from their number. Each member of the board shall take an oath, which shall be administered and recorded by the clerk of the said court, to truly canvass, add up and declare the votes as required by law. At their first meeting a majority of the whole board shall be a quorum. If a majority shall not attend on the Thursday aforesaid, the canvassers present shall adjourn to the next day, when they shall meet again between the same hours, and the canvassers then attending, although less than a majority of the whole num ber, shall organize themselves as a board and shall perform the duties required by law, and all questions arising in the course of their proceedings shall be determined by a majority of the canvassers so attending. All the sessions, deliberations and proceedings of the board shall be public, and the candidates and their counsel shall have the right to attend and to inspect the original statements and returns, and all other documents and records. CHAPTER 544, ACTS OF 1906. 80. The Board of Canvassers shall, upon being duly organized, open all the original statements or returns and tally sheets delivered or transmitted to them, and shall canvass and add up the votes and make abstracts or statements thereof in the following manner, as the case may require namely: All votes for Governor shall be written out in words at length on one sheet, and, in like manner, all votes for other State officers on another sheet; all votes for presidential electors on another sheet, all votes for Representatives in Congress on another sheet; all votes for judges of courts on another sheet; all votes for the Clerk of the Court of Appeals on another sheet; all votes for Senators and Delegates to the General Assembly on another sheet; all votes for county or city officers on another sheet; and all votes for any other officers on a separate and appropriate sheet; all votes for or against any proposition which may be submitted to a vote of the people on another sheet. CHAPTER 202, ACTS OF 1896. 81. The said Board of Canvassers shall then transmit the said statements made by them, attested by the signature of their chairman and secretary, to the Clerk of the Circuit Court for the county, or to the Clerk of the Superior Court of Baltimore city, as the case may be, who shall enter the same of record. In case of all elections of presidential electors, Representatives in Congress, Senators and Delegates to the General Assembly, and of other State officers, except Governor or State's Attorney, the said clerk shall prepare three certified copies, under his seal of office, of the said statements and certificates. Within five days after the adjournment of the Board of Canvassers, the said clerk shall deposit the said certified copies in the nearest post office, addressed, respectively, to the Governor, to the Secretary of State and to the Treasurer. The statement of the votes for Governor, after being recorded, shall be transmitted by the clerk to the Secretary of State, as provided in the Constitution. The said clerk shall make out and deliver to each person having the highest number of votes for the several county and city offices a certificate of election on his application. The said canvassing board shall also make a statement of the whole number of votes given in each precinct and county or city, with the names of the candidates and the number of votes given for each, in tabular form, and shall cause a copy of such statements to be forthwith published in one or more of the newspapers printed in the county or in the city of Baltimore; provided, such official statement be so published without charge. |