508 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [Ch. 347]

ties may file a petition in the Circuit Court within ten days
after said work is finished, naming said clerks and the Board
of Supervisors of Election as defendants, and the said Court
shall have the power to make such order for the correction of
said books as may be proper. The cost of such preparation of
proper registry books shall be paid by the County Commis-
sioners of the county in which such subdivision shall be made,
upon proper requisitions and vouchers presented by the Boards
of Supervisors of Elections. Any political party that polled
more than one per cent, of the votes cast at the last election
may, through its political committee, if it has one, or by citi-
zens representing said party, if there be no political committee,
name a watcher and substitute watcher who shall be permitted
to attend at the transcribing of said names and have power to
examine the said books during the sittings of said clerks for
the said work and for a period of five days thereafter in the
presence of said Board of Supervisors. In the books of regis-
try so provided for to be used in transcribing said registered
voters in each and every county of the State subsequent to
the passage of this act, there shall be provided a distinct column
headed "Party Affiliations," and the Board of Registers shall
enter in this column the name of the political party, if any,
to which the voter is inclined and with which the voter desires
to have himself recorded as affiliated. It shall be the duty of
the Board of Registry to explain to each voter that the state-
ment of such party affiliation does not bind him to vote for
the candidate of such party at any given election; also that
he has the right to decline to state any party affiliations; but
that no one who is not recorded upon the registry as affiliated
with a particular political party will be qualified to vote at
subsequent primary elections of said political party. When-
ever a voter declines to state his party affiliations, the word
"Declined" shall be written opposite his name in such column
so that there shall be written in such column opposite the name
of every registered voter, either his party affiliation or the
word "Declined." Each and every voter as he appears at the
first primary election, at which he votes subsequent to the
passage of this act shall, before he is permitted to vote at said
primary, state to which party he is inclined and to which party
he desires to have himself recorded as affiliated, and the Board
of Registers, then sitting as judges of election, shall thereupon
and at once enter in the column provided for party affiliations
the name of the political party to which the voter is inclined
and with which he desires to affiliate, and in said primary and
all primary elections thereafter held, any person so registered