ACTS OF 1888. 1 CHAPTER 441. AN ACT TO REGULATE THE HOLDING OF CAUCUSES OR PUBLIC Be it enacted, etc., as follows: call. SECTION 1. Any caucus or public meeting of the qualified Provisions to apply when voters of a town or city or ward of a city or of any specified specified in the party or portion of such voters for the nomination of candidates to be supported at any state, municipal or town election, or for the selection of delegates to any political convention, or for the appointment of any political committee, may be called by written or printed notice specifying that the same is to be held in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, and the provisions thereof shall then apply to the conduct and proceedings of such meeting. chairman. SECT. 2. The call for the meeting shall designate by name Temporary or office the person who shall call such meeting to order; and the person so designated shall call the meeting to order and preside until a chairman shall be chosen. In case, however, the person so designated shall be absent at the time appointed, the meeting may choose a temporary chairman to act in place of such person. The organization of the meeting by the choice of a Organization. chairman, clerk and such other officers as the meeting may require, shall be the first business in order. ballot if ten request in writ SECT. 3. A ballot shall be taken for the choice of any can- Vote to be by didate, delegate or member of a political committee to be se- persons so lected by such meeting, in case ten or more of the persons ing, unless, etc. present and entitled to vote therein shall in any case so request in writing; and in case of such written request a ballot shall be taken for the choice of the chairman of such meeting unless the meeting shall vote to dispense with such ballot. Such Time for prewritten request may be presented to the presiding officer for the time being, by motion or otherwise at any time before a 1 See 1889, 413, § 3; 1890, 436, § 6. senting request. 645369 used. Voting list to be choice of the officers to which it relates is effected. In balloting, the voting lists last published according to law, with such subsequent written additions thereto as may be certified by the registrars of voters, shall be used as check lists. Penalty, for illegal voting. on officer. Clerk, at request in writing of ten ballots and SECT. 4. Whoever shall vote at any such meeting, or at any caucus or public meeting of the qualified voters of a town or city or ward of a city or of any specified party or portion of such voters, at which a check list is used, for the nomination of candidates to be supported at any state, municipal or town election, or for the selection of delegates to any political convention, or for the appointment of any political committee, not being a legal voter in the town or city, or ward of a city, as the case may be, in and for which such meeting is held; whoever shall so vote, being such legal voter, but not being included in the terms of the call under which such meeting is held; whoever shall vote or attempt to vote upon any name not his own; whoever shall vote or attempt to vote more than once at one balloting; whoever knowingly shall cast or attempt to cast more than one ballot at one time of balloting, or more than the number of separate ballots allowed to each voter, if more than one ballot is allowed to be cast, shall be punished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or by imprisonment in the jail not exceeding three months, or by both fine and imprisonment. SECT. 5. Whoever, being an officer appointed and acting at any such meeting, shall knowingly make any false count of ballots or votes, or make a false statement or declaration of the result of a ballot or vote, or knowingly refuse to receive any ballot cast by a person qualified to vote at such meeting, or shall wilfully alter, deface or destroy any ballots cast or check lists used thereat, before the requirements of this act have been accomplished, or shall decline or fail to receive any written request made as herein required, or shall decline or fail to perform any duty or obligation imposed by this act, shall be punished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars or by imprisonment in the jail not exceeding three months, or by both fine and imprisonment. SECT. 6. The clerk chosen at such meeting shall, at the voters, to keep request in writing of ten voters entitled to act therein, safely keep all ballots cast and check lists used therein for the period of three months, and shall produce the same if called for by any court or justice. check list, etc. SECT. 7. Nothing herein shall prevent the enforcement at Further regulations may be such meeting of further regulations not inconsistent with the enforced. provisions of this chapter. SECT. 8. This act shall take effect upon its passage. Approved May 29, 1888. ACTS OF 1889. 1 CHAPTER 413. AN ACT TO AMEND AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR PRINTING AND Be it enacted, etc., as follows: * in state and city elections to distributed at be printed and public expense. SECTION 1. All ballots cast in elections for national, state, Ballots for use district and county officers in cities and towns after the first day of November in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and all ballots cast in municipal elections in cities after that date, shall be printed and distributed at public expense, as hereinafter provided. The printing of the ballots and cards of instructions to voters shall in municipal elections in cities be paid for by the several cities respectively, and in all other elections the printing of the ballots and cards of instructions, and the delivery of them to the several cities and towns, shall be paid for by the Commonwealth. The distribution of the ballots to the voters shall be paid for by the cities and towns respectively. The term "state election", as used in this act, Certain terms shall apply to any election held for the choice of a national, state, district or county officer, whether for a full term or for the filling of a vacancy; and the term "state officer" shall apply to any person to be chosen by the qualified voters at such an election. The term "city election" shall apply to any municipal election so held in a city, and the term "city officer" shall apply to any person to be chosen by the qualified voters at such an election. 1 Being 1888, 436, as amended by 1889, 413; modified and amended by 1890, 423, 436; 1891, 74, 238, 269, 270, 278, 305, 329; 1892, 124, 279, 316, 368, 406. defined. Nominations of candidates. Names to be placed upon ballots. One candidate for each office may be nominated. Caucuses. 1888, 441. 1890, 436, § 6. Certificate of nomination. to be signed and sworn to by officers of caucus or convention. Nomination papers, for can at large. for districts or divisions of state. 1 NOMINATIONS OF CANDIDATES. SECT. 2. Any convention of delegates, and any caucus or meeting of qualified voters, as hereinafter defined, and indi vidual voters to the number and in the manner hereinafter specified, may nominate candidates for public office, whose names shall be placed upon the ballots to be furnished as herein provided. SECT. 3. Any convention of delegates representing a political party which, at the annual election next preceding, polled at least three per cent. of the entire vote cast in the state for governor, or any convention of delegates who have been selected in caucuses called and held in accordance with a 'special statute providing therefor, and any 2 caucus so called and held in any such electoral district or division, may for the state or for the district or division for which the convention or caucus is held, as the case may be, by causing a certificate of nomination to be duly filed, make one such nomination for each office therein to be filled at the election. Every such certificate of nomination shall state such facts as may be required as above for its acceptance, and as are required in section five of this act; shall be signed by the presiding officer and by the secretary of the convention or caucus, who shall add thereto their places of residence; and shall be sworn by them to be true to the best of their knowledge and belief, and a certificate of the oath shall be annexed to the certificate of nomination. SECT. 4. Nominations of candidates for any offices to be didates for state filled by the voters of the state at large may be made by nomination papers signed in the aggregate for each candidate by not less than one thousand qualified voters of the state. Nominations of candidates for electoral districts or divisions of the state may be made by nomination papers signed in the aggregate for each candidate by qualified voters of such district or division, not less in number than one for every one hundred persons who voted at the next preceding annual election in such district or division, but in no case less than fifty. In the case of a first election to be held in a town or ward newly established, the number of fifty shall be sufficient for the nomination of a candidate who is to be voted for only in such town or ward; and in the case of a first election in a district or division newly established, other than a town or ward, the number of fifty 1 See 1891, 329, § 2. 2 See 1890, 436, § 6. in case of first election, etc. 3 See 1888, 441. |