to vote.

Ballots, how yoted.

OF FREE SCHOOLS.

designations and directions at the head of each group showing the terms for which the persons therein were nominated, whether they are nominees for such ward or for the city at large, and the number of persons who may be voted for in Electors, how each group. The electors shall designate their choice of candidates to be voted for in each of such groups by drawing a line through the names of all persons in each group except those candidates in each group desired to be voted for by them. Defective designation of an elector's choice in one or more of such groups of candidates shall not invalidate said ballot so far as there shall appear to be a proper designation of choice in any other of said groups of candidates. Such ballots shall be voted at said special election and deposited in a ballot box provided by the said Department of Elections for such purpose. The name of any candidate shall not be not published, thus published and placed on the official ballot by said board of canvassers if it shall appear that he is ineligible for membership on the said Board of Education under the provisions of Section 4 of this Act. The candidate or candidates to be elected from each School Election District receiving the plurality of votes from such district, and the candidate or candidates to be elected from the city at large receiving the plurality of votes for the city at large shall be declared elected. It at any election a member is to be chosen to fill a vacancy and to serve out an unexpired term, candidates may be chosen as above provided.

What candidates name

Plurality of votes determine.

Qualifications

of electors.

Proviso.

tant, when

may vote.

Section 6. Said members of the Board of Education shall be chosen by ballot in manner and form hereinbefore provided by the residents of the city who shall have been qualified to vote at the last preceding city election.

Provided that every female inhabitant of said city who is of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, and has reFemale inhabi- sided within said city for three months next preceding the election for members of the Board of Public Education in Wilmington, and in the ward where she offers to vote for at least one month next preceding said election, and who shall also be a bona fide freeholder within said city and shall have been assessed for and paid a school tax for the City of Wilmington for the preceding year, shall be entitled to vote for members of said Board. In the absence of objection or

OF FREE SCHOOLS.

prima facie

right to vote.

challenge, the production of a receipt for said school tax shall Tax receipt be prima facie evidence of the right of said female inhabitant evidence of to vote at said school election. In case of objection to or challenge of said female voter, the inspector of said election Challenge. shall cause said female voter offering to vote at said election to take the following oath:

when chal

I. do swear (or affirm) that I am of the Oath of female age of twenty-one years or upwards, and have resided within lenged. the City of Wilmington for three months last past, and in the ward where I now offer to vote for at least one month last past.

The taking of said oath shall not relieve said female inhabitant offering to vote as aforesaid from the production at said election of the receipt for said school tax as aforesaid.

tant

vote.

in Board.

men ineligible

Place of elec

tion fixed by

Board,

Notice.

Every female inhabitant of said City possessing the re- Female inhabiquirements above specified, shall be qualified to vote at all right to elections for members of said Board, and if 25 years of age Eligible to or upwards, shall also be eligible for membership in said membership Board. No member of City Council shall be a member of the City CouncilBoard of Public Education. The Board of Education shall to Board appoint a place or places for holding the school election in each ward, and give notice thereof in two or more newspapers published in the City of Wilmington for ten days previous to the time of holding said election, and shall also give at least four days' notice thereof by hand bills, under the name of the Secretary of the Board, posted in four or more of the most public places in each ward. The Department of Elections of the City of Wilmington shall, at the request of said Board, appoint three men as Inspectors for each poll- Officers of ing place designated as aforesaid, whose duty it shall be to hold said election and judge of the qualifications of voters, and otherwise conform to the requirements of law in that behalf. The three Inspectors thus appointed for any polling place shall be from among those persons who at the last preceding city election acted as Inspectors within the ward in which they are appointed to hold the school election, and they shall not all be of the same political faith. Two of said Minority party Inspectors may act as clerks, and as a part of their duties shall

Election.

represented.

Time of election.

Polls, when opened.

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keep a list of the names and residences of electors who shall have voted at each polling place. The election of members of the Board shall be held on the second Saturday in June in the year nineteen hundred and five, and at the same time in every second year thereafter. Said election shall be held in the afternoon, the polls being opened at twelve o'clock or within thirty minutes thereafter, and closed at six o'clock. If the Inspectors appointed and directed as aforesaid to hold election officers said election shall refuse to serve or are not at the place of polls, how filled. election at the time of opening the polls, the voters present, shall by plurality, without ballot, choose an officer or officers for holding the election in the place of the one or more so refusing or not present. The officers holding the election shall, before opening the election, each take an oath or affirmation as follows:

Absence of

at opening of

Oath of election officers.

Organization of election offi

cers.

Chairman.

Voter challenged.

Oath to chal

lenged voter.

I,

do solemnly swear (or affirm) that in holding the election this day for members of the Board of Public Education in Wilmington, I will faithfully discharge my duty and make true certificates thereof and deliver the same according to law, so help me God (or, I solemnly affirm).

The Inspectors appointed or chosen as aforesaid to hold said election shall meet at the polling places to which they are allotted, and shall organize as a Board by selecting one of their number to act as chairman, but in case of failure to so organize within fifteen minutes after the time fixed for meeting, the chairman shall be selected by lot. The Inspector selected as chairman is authorized to administer the oath or affirmation hereinbefore provided to the other Inspectors and either of them to him or to each other.

Any person applying to vote for members of said Board may, on any day of election, be challenged by any qualified voter of the City of Wilmington; and any one of the Inspectors of election at the polling place where said person is challenged may, at any such time or times, and one of them shall, administer to any male person challenged the following oath or affirmation:

You do swear (or affirm) that you will fully and truly answer such questions as shall be asked you touching your

OF FREE SCHOOLS.

qualifications as an elector, so help me God (or so you solemnly affirm).

Any person who may be offered as a witness to prove the When voter qualifications of any person so claiming the right to vote, may be refused. shall also be sworn or affirmed in like manner. Any person refusing to take such an oath or affirmation, if so required, or refusing to answer such questions as may be asked touching his qualifications as an elector, shall not be permitted to vote. If any person, male or female, taking an oath or affirmation provided for in this Section, shall swear falsely, he shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and upon conviction, shall be Perjury. punished by fine or imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the trial court.

election, its

It shall be the duty of the Department of Elections for the Department of City of Wilmington, on or before the hour of 12 noon, on the duty. day of the holding of any election for members of said Board provided for in this Act, to deliver at the places for holding of said elections so designated by the Board of Public Education in Wilmington, all books of registered voters used at Books of regis the next preceding city election, containing the names of tered voters. residents within the voting district for which said polling place is designated as aforesaid. Said books of registered voters shall be used by the officers holding said school election to determine the qualifications of all males offering to vote at said election and who are qualified to vote at school elections, and at the close of the polls of said election, shall be forthwith returned to the said Department of Elections.

election,

To whom

The officers holding said election shall, upon the closing of the polls, forthwith proceed to count the votes for the Returns of several candidates voted for at said election, and shall prepare and severally sign duplicate returns of said votes upon blanks furnished said election officers by the said Board of Public Education in Wilmington. One of said duplicate returns shall, together with the ballots cast at said election, delivered. and the list of electors who shall have voted, be deposited in the ballot box, which box shall be thereupon securely sealed and retained in the exclusive custody of the chairman of the election officers of the respective polling places until the meeting of the Board of Canvass as hereinafter provided. The other certificate of said return shall be forthwith de

Board of canvass.

When ballot boxes may be opened.

OF FREE SCHOOLS.

livered to the Secretary of the said Board of Public Education in Wilmington.

That on the Monday following the holding of any city school election the chairman of the election officers of the respective polling places where said elections have been held as aforesaid, shall, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, meet at the rooms of the Board of Public Education in Wilmington, where the meetings of said Board are usually held, and shall there produce the said ballot boxes, together with their contents, and shall proceed forthwith to canvass the returns of the vote for the candidates for said Board, using for the purpose of the said canvass and the determination of the votes cast for any candidate for said Board, the certificates. of election returns theretofore deposited with the Secretary of said Board.

Recourse to the certificate of election returns remaining in the ballot boxes shall be had by said Board of Canvass only in case of the absence, illegibility, defacement or alteration of the certificate theretofore deposited with the Secretary of said Board. Recourse to the ballots in any one said be recounted. ballot boxes shall be had only in case of a sworn allegation of the fraudulent miscount or false certification by the election officers at any polling place of the ballots cast at such polling place.

When ballots to

Certificates of results.

To whom delivered.

Board to orga. nize when.

That upon the canvass of said vote, the members of said Board of Canvass, or a majority of them, shall then immediately make out a sufficient number of certificates of the result of said election upon blanks to be furnished them by the said Board of Public Education in Wilmington, under their hands, and shall within two days thereafter, deliver one of said certificates to the Secretary of the said Board and one to each member elect.

The said Board shall meet for organization on the thirtieth day of June immediately after said biennial election, or on the twenty-ninth of June should the thirtieth day of June fall on Sunday; and it shall be the judge of the election of its own members.

That all and every of the acts and duties relative to the said school election imposed upon or vested in the said Board