for congress, or other district nominees, shall be composed of delegates selected pursuant to the provisions of this act, at a general primary election to be held for such purpose upon the last Tuesday of March in each such year. A general primary election for the election of delegates to the state and district conventions in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, for the purpose of nominating candi dates for office to be voted for at the next ensuing general election, shall be held on the second Tuesday in the month of July in that year, and every four years thereafter on the same day. It shall be the duty of the board of election commissioners of each respective county, or city and county, by resolution, to prescribe and designate a day, or days, upon which a primary election, or primary elections, for delegates to a county, or city and county, or city, or other local convention, for the purpose of nominating county, or city and county, or city, or other local officers, may be held, and each of said boards shall have the power to prescribe that separate primary elections shall be held for the election of delegates to a county, city, city and county, or other local convention, and for the election of delegates to a city or various city conventions for the nomination of city officers, or may prescribe that both sets of delegates shall be elected at the same primary election. Such resolution must be made by said board at least sixty (60) days prior to the day named by said board or fixed by law for any election of any public officer or officers, and notice thereof shall be published for at least five successive days in one daily newspaper of general circulation, published in the county, or city and county.

SEC. 3. All political parties or organizations of electors, desiring to hold a convention or conventions for the purpose of nominating candidates for public office, to be voted for at any election, whether city, county, city and county, or state, must petition the boards of election commissioners of each respective county, or city and county, in

writing, at least twenty days before the day for such primary election, which day, unless determined herein by law, must be the day by resolution fixed by the board of election commissioner, as herein before provided, and which petition must set forth:

First-The name by which such political party or organization is known, or desires to be known.

Second-That such political party or organization is desirious of and intends to hold a convention, or conventions, of delegates representing said party or organization-designating the general time and place of holding any such convention, or conventions for the purpose of nominating candidates for offices to be voted for by the people of the state, or city, or county, or city and county, or both, or all, at the next ensuing election, and is desirious of electing delegates to such convention, or conventions, to be held for that purpose, under the provisions of this act, and requesting that the board of election commissioners of the county, or city and county, perform the services hereinafter prescribed in this act. If such political party is one which by reason of its previous vote is entitled to hold a convention defined by sections eleven hundred and eighty-six and eleven hundred and eighty-seven of the Political Code, such petition must be authenticated by the signature of the chairman and secretary of the committee of the party or organization for the respective district or territory throughout which the primaries and election are sought to be held, which committee shall have been selected at the last convention of the party or organization for such territory, or elected or appointed in the method or manner required by law. That is to say, if a primary election is desired throughout the state for the selection of delegates to a state convention, then the petition must be authenticated by the chairman and secretary of the state committee; if for a district convention, then by the chairman and secretary of the district committee; or, if there be no district committee, then by the

state committee; if for a county, or city and county convention, then by the county, or city and county committee, and if for a city or other local convention, then by the chairman and secretary of the city committee or local committee, if any, and verified by the oath of such signers that the facts therein stated are true, and that the said signers are the chairman and secretary of said committee, respectively. No political party or organization can use the name of another political party or organization, or any name or designation so similar to another party name that it may deceive voters.

SEC. 4. Any political party or political organization which, at the last election preceding the filing of such application, shall not have polled at least three per cent. of the entire vote cast in the political division for which nominations are sought to be made, may file not less than twenty days prior to the time set for any primary election with the election commissioners of the county, or city and county in which such primary election is to be held a petition signed by at least three per cent. of the voters at such last election of the political division for which nominations are sought to be made, which need not all be on one paper, which petition shall set cut all facts required to be set forth in the application in this act provided for, and which petition shall further set forth that the persons signing the same are members of such political organization, and intend to support candidates for election as delegates to the convention for their respective political organization, and such petition must be verified in the same manner as required for a certificate of nomination mentioned in section eleven hundred and eighty-eight of the Political Code. Upon the filing of such petition, within said time, the election commissioners of the county, or city and county in which said primary elections are to be held, shall order its clerk to issue to said political organization a certificate similar to that in this act provided to be issued to existing political parties, which certificates shall entitle the

petitioners to participate in the said primary election, and shall entitle them to all privileges and rights secured and granted to other political parties heretofore existing, both at said primary election and at the ensuing election; that is to say, having complied with all the requirements in this act provided, the petitioners shall be recognized as a political party or organization. Such certificate shall be issued to all parties petitioning, stating the name of the party, the date of the primary, the territory over which it will extend, and be signed by the clerk of such board,

SEC. 5. During the month of January of each year in which a general election is to be held, it shall be the duty of the board of election commissioners of each county, or city and county, to select from the precinct registers of the county, or city, or city and county, the names of not less than fifteen electors residing in each election precinct of such county, or city, or city and county, such selection to be made from each of the political parties then existing in as nearly an equal proportion as practicable, and to write the name of each person so selected on a separate piece of paper, and to fold said paper so that the name written thereon cannot be seen or read without unfolding the same; and when the names are so written and folded, to put all of the names so selected from each separate election precinct in an envelope, then to close and securely seal such envelope, and to write the name and number of the precinct from which such selection was made on the outside of such envelope, and when the names so selected from each election precinct in such county, or city, or city and county, shall have been so placed in separate precinct envelopes, and each sealed and numbered so as to designate the precinct from which each selection was so made, then all of the said envelopes so marked and sealed shall be placed in a box, to be provided by each board of election commisssioners for that purpose, and such box shall then be securely locked and sealed and safely kept by said

board of election commissioners until required by them for use, as hereinafter provided. The names so selected shall be forthwith recorded in a book for that purpose by the clerk of the board of election commissioners, which book must be kept open at all times to public inspection.

SEC. 6. Twenty days before the holding of any primary election, the said board of election commissioners shall open the said box in the presence of a majority of said board, and in the presence of such of the members of the various political parties as may be present to witness the same, and shall then take from said box the said envelopes, one at a time, and as each envelope is taken from the box it shall be opened and the names therein contained, without being unfolded, shall be placed in a separate box suitable for the purpose; and, after being thoroughly shaken, the clerk of said board, in the presence of the board, shall draw from said box the name of one person, who shall be the inspector of the primary election in such precinct; said clerk shall then draw from said box the names of two persons, who shall be the judges of such primary election in said precinct; and the clerk shall then draw from said box the names of two other persons, who shall be the clerks of such primary election; provided, that if the two persons whose names are drawn for judges shall both belong to one political party, the clerk of said board shall lay aside the last name so drawn for a judge, and draw other names from such box until only one of the judges so selected shall belong to the same political party; and further provided, that if the two persons whose names are drawn for clerks shall both belong to one political party, the clerk of said board shall lay aside the last name so drawn for a clerk, and draw other names from such box until only one of the clerks so selected shall belong to the same political party; and the same course shall be pursued in each precinct until the election officers are selected in each precinct in such city, county, or city and county. Should all the names be drawn from said