518

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

the time of appointing judges of election the Commissioners
shall also designate a polling place in each ward. The names
of the three judges of election and the alternate judge, the

Polling places

places designated for polling places, and a notice of the date
and object of said election shall be published under the direc-
tion of the Commissioners in one or more of the newspapers
issued in said town once a week for two successive weeks in
the month next preceding the election, and at least ten days
before the date thereof. But if the Commissioners fail to
perform the duties herein prescribed, or any of said duties,
the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Dorchester County shall be
and is hereby authorized and directed at any time within ten
days next before, said election to perform any of the duties
omitted by the Commissioners. Instead, however, of pub-
lishing in one or more newspapers the names of the three
judges of election and the alternate judge, and the polling
places, and the notice of the date and object of the election,
the Clerk of the Circuit Court may make publication thereof
by handbills posted in at least three conspicuous places in
each ward.

Judges shall
make oath,
etc.

Before proceeding to act, the three judges of election and
the alternate judge shall make oath before one of the Com-
missioners, or before a justice of the peace, "That he will well
and faithfully, without fear or favor, partiality or prejudice,
perform the duties of judges of election on the occasion of said
election, and the officer who administers said oath to said
judges shall make out and subscribe a certificate of such
fact and return the same to the Commissioners or to the Town
Clerk for them. If any of the three judges of election, ap-
pointed in the several wards, shall fail, without good and
sufficient reason to excuse him, to attend and act, or who shall
act without making oath as aforesaid, he shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof before a justice of the
peace or in said Circuit Court, he shall be fined fifty dollars and

Fines
for violation.

shall stand committed till fine and costs are paid. All fines
imposed for any violation of any of the provisions of this
enactment or charter shall be paid to the Town Clerk for
corporate purposes. If at the hour appointed for opening
the polls at such election any of the three judges appointed

Alternate
judge and
duties of.

for any of the wards shall fail to attend, the alternate judge
for the same shall take the oath prescribed to be taken by
such judges of election before a Commissioner or justice of the
peace, who shall make out and sign a certificate setting forth
that said oath was duly taken, and said officer shall return
said certificate to the Commissioners or Town Clerk for them,