OF ELECTIONS. General registration of voters in the mington. CHAPTER 39. OF ELECTIONS. AN ACT to provide for the Registration of Voters in the City of Wilmington. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met: SECTION 1. That for the purpose of preventing fraud at qualified all elections held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday City of Wil- in the month of November, as provided by Section 1 of Article 4 of the Constitution of this State, and facilitating the ascertainment of those who are duly qualified electors according to the constitution and laws of this State, there shall hereafter in the city of Wilmington be a general registration of all the qualified voters resident in each election district in said city at the times hereinbelow provided and then only on Saturday of the fourth week, on Saturday of the third week and on Friday and Saturday of the second week next preceding the day of each and every such election. That for each and every election, other than such as above designated, except municipal elections and elections for members of the Board of Education, held in said city there shall be a revision of the general registration had as provided in this act, which revision shall be made on the second Saturday next preceding the day of each and every such election. Governor to appoint 3 constitute a SECTION 2. That, in the month of August in the year persons to 1891, on or before the tenth day thereof, the Governor of Department the State of Delaware shall appoint three persons of said of Elections. city, who shall constitute a Department of Elections for said city, with full power to act as such for the terms of two, four and six years from the date of their appointment, or until Term, how their successors shall be duly appointed. At the first meeting of the said board said members of said Department of Election shall determine their terms by lot, and shall certify the result to the Clerk of the Peace for New Castle County, who shall carefully preserve the same; and the said result, or a copy duly certified by the said Clerk of the Peace under his hand and seal of office, shall be evidence in all the determined. OF ELECTIONS. office. cannot be for office. how filled. courts of this State or elsewhere. At the expiration of the Term of term of the said member who shall draw the shortest term, and biennially thereafter, the place of the retiring member shall be filled by appointment by the Governor of the State of Delaware, for the term of six years. No person shall be Qualifica eligible to appointment as a member of said department tions. who shall not be a citizen of the United States of America, and be a qualified voter of and resident in said city for the term of five years next preceding his appointment. No Members member of said Department of Elections shall hold or be a candidates candidate for any other State or county office during his membership in said department, nor until the expiration of six months after he shall have ceased to be a member of said Department of Elections. When any vacancy occurs in said Vacancies, department, by or from any cause whatsoever, the Governor aforesaid shall fill the unexpired term by appointment, but at no time shall all the members of said department be of the same political faith and opinion. Each of said members Oath of shall, before entering upon his duties, and within one month from the time of his appointment, take and subscribe and file in the office of the Clerk of the Peace aforesaid an oath or affirmation that he will perform the duties of his office with fidelity and impartiality. The persons so named shall Organizameet and organize said Department of Elections by this action. constituted by selecting one of their number to be president, whose term of office shall continue for two years from the date of his appointment, when and bienially thereafter the said Department of Elections shall select one of their number to be president. Each member of the Department of CompensaElections shall receive as a compensation for his services the tion. annual salary of five hundred dollars: Provided, that no Proviso. salary or compensation shall be paid in any year in which no general or special election is held. office. SECTION 3. The duties of the members of the Depart- Duties of ment of Elections shall be as follows: Department of Elections. Districts. 1. They shall, on or before the first day of September Election next preceding the time of the first registration held under the provisions of this act, and in every sixth year thereafter, on or before the first day of September, divide the city into as many election districts as they shall deem necessary. Provided that each election district shall contain as near as Proviso. may be no more than three hundred, nor less than one hundred, qualified voters. And provided further, that each of districts. OF ELECTIONS. said districts shall be entirely within the boundaries of one Division of ward. And on or before the first day of September, A. D. eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and biennially thereafter, said Department of Elections may divide such of the districts, and such only as by the registration of voters last preceding such division shall be found to have had a registration of more than three hundred voters, but in any such division of any such district one portion of the district shall retain the original numerical designation and the other portion shall take the number following the highest numbered district in the ward in which such new districts are situated. Place of Notice. 2. They shall designate and appoint a place of registry and polling place in each election district in the city, and shall, not less than two weeks prior to the first day of any registration or revision of registration, provided for in this act, advertise, by posters or handbills, posted in five of the most public places in each district, the number and bounda ries of the districts in which they are posted, the time and place of holding the next registration and election in such district, the officers to be voted for at such election, and at the places so designated all elections shall be held and the Furnishing work of registration performed; and the said Department of registration. Elections shall hire all such places and cause the same to be fitted up, warmed, lighted and cleaned, but in such election district such place shall be in the most public, orderly and convenient portion of the district, and no building or part of a building shall be designated or used as a place of registry or polling place in which, or in any part of which, spirIntoxicating ituous or intoxicating liquor is or has been sold within sixty days next preceding the time of using the same. of rooms for liquors. registration. Contents. Books for 3. They shall cause to be prepared books for the registration of names and facts required by this act; said books to be known by the general name of Registers, and to be so arranged as to admit of the entry of the names of each street or avenue in each election district, and the number of each dwelling in any such street or avenue, if there be a number thereto, and if there be no number, under such definite description of the location of the dwelling place as shall enable it to be readily ascertained, found and located; of the names of all male persons, resident in each dwelling in each of said districts, who shall apply for registration. Such registers shall be ruled in parallel columns, in which, opposite to and against the name of every applicant, shall be entered the words and figures hereinafter provided in this Form of OF ELECTIONS. act, and shall be of such size as to contain not less than four hundred names, and so prepared that they may be used at each election in the said city until such time as in this act provided for the succeeding registration, and shall on the inside be in appearance and form as follows, to wit: 4. They shall prepare and furnish all necessary registers, Necessary books, maps, forms, oaths, certificates, blanks and instruc-ences, and tions for the use of the inspectors of election, provide for the supplies, etc furnishing of such officers therewith and with all necessary supplies, and also a copy of this law for their guidance. They shall have and retain the custody of all registers, tally lists, books, maps, forms, oaths of office and of removal, blanks, instructions, and all other records and supplies of every other kind or description pertaining to the Department of Elections provided for in this act. dismiss elec clerks and assistants. 5. They shall have power to dismiss any election officer Power to at any time and supply his place with another person. They tion officers. may also employ a clerk and such other assistants as in the May employ judgment of the members of said department shall be necessary and proper for the faithful performance by the department of the duties by this act imposed; provided the expense Proviso. thereof shall not exceed fifteen hundred dollars in any one. year, which said sum shall not include the compensation of members of the Department of Elections, inspectors, and poll clerks, to be paid as provided in this act. May make or have made copies of names, 6. They shall from time to time and at all times, and at least once in each and every year in which an election is held, have full power and authority to make or cause to be residences, made such full, complete and accurate copies, as they shall persons dydeem necessary, of the records of the names, residences, age city. etc., of male ing in the such list to OF ELECTIONS. and cause of death of each male person who shall die in the city, as the facts in respect to such death shall be furnished to the Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the city, and shall keep, preserve and file all such copies of such records; and it shall be the duty of the Department of Elections, in each year in which an election is held, to cause to To deliver be delivered to each inspector of election in each election district in the city, on or before the first day of registration, an alphabetical record of all male persons twenty-one years of age and upwards who, in the district in which the said inspector is to serve, have died since the last election. Such records shall be known and designated as the record of death; Inspector to and it shall be the duty of each inspector of election in each such names election district, upon the receipt of such record, to securely from his list attach the same to the inside of the register in his custody inspectors. strike off Election ma chinery to be to the end that it may be preserved, and upon the receipt of the same each inspector shall examine the register in his custody as to the name of every person upon said register, who, by said record of deaths, shall by a coincidence in respect to said names and facts appear to have deceased, and opposite to and against every such name to enter in the column headed "why disqualified" the word “dead,” in the column "date of erasing name" the month, day and year of such erasing, and in the column headed "remarks" the words "stricken from the register," adding against each such entry made in the column of remarks the initial letters of the name of the inspector making such entry, and through the name of every such person stricken from the register, and then only, shall draw a line indicative that such name is erased from the register of that election district. 7. They shall furnish the inspectors of election in each furnished as election district with the hereinafter named election machinery: follows. (a.) Two boxes of a size sufficient in their judgment to receive the ballots in the respective districts, and of such character and workmanship as will insure safety and fairness in elections; in the lid of one of the boxes shall be a hole sufficient only to admit with convenience one ballot; and it shall be furnished with a lock and key for securing the lid; the lid of the other box shall be without a hole and shall also be furnished with a lock and key and so constructed as to be secured with tape and sealing wax. (b.) Stamps which, when applied to tax receipts on |