796 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 13,

entitle the contestant to the office, it would be necessary to
refer in more detail to the testimony than your Committee
now deem it requisite.

The returns, as made to the Governor, show that Widdi-
combe received 2,349 votes, and Brooke received 2,342 votes,
thus electing Widdicombe by a majority of seven votes.
The grounds upon which the election of Widdicombe is con-
tested, are as follows :

1st. That said election was not conducted in the manner
designated by the Constitution and Laws of Maryland.

2d. That owing to intimidation, legally qualified voters
were prevented from voting at said election.

3d. That legally qualified voters were prevented from vot-
ing at said election by other causes.

4th. That minors were allowed to vote at said election.

5th. That unpardoned convicts were permitted to vote at
said election.

6th. That non-residents of said State and county were
permitted to vote at said election.

7th. That the returns of said election were not made out,
returned and certified according to the laws of this State.

8th. That through the unlawful interference of candidates
and others at said election, legally qualified voters were
deceived and prevented from voting for him, the said con-
testant.

The seventh objection was not insisted upon by the con-
testant, and as no reasons were shown to your Committee
upon which to sustain it. it may be considered as waived.

The first, second, third and eight objections may be con-
sidered together. The Constitution of the State, Article
first, section first, provides that all elections shall be by
ballot; and Article thirty-five, section twenty-three, of the
Code of Public General Laws, declares that if any can-
didate or other person or persons shall practice force or
violence, with intent to influence unduly, or to overawe, in-
tercept or hinder any election, he shall, on conviction thereof
in any Court of Criminal Jurisdiction in the county where
the offence was committed, suffer such fine, not exceeding
two hundred and fifty dollars, and such imprisonment, not
exceeding fifty days, as the Court shall adjudge.

The very foundation of the exercise of the elective fran-
chise by ballot, as contradistinguished from viva voce voting,
is secrecy, and the purity of elections depends upon the free-
dom and untramelled choice with which the voter can ex-
press his preference for the respective candidates.