ART. 33] PRIMARY ELECTIONS. 933

Primary Elections.

190S, ch. 737, sec. 160 A. 1910, ch. 741, sec. 160 A (p. 113).

178. Political parties which, at the general election held on Novem-
ber 2, 1909, in the State of Maryland, or which at any future general
election next preceding any primary, election to be held hereunder, as
shall have polled ten per cent, of the entire vote cast in the State at
such or any such general election, shall hereafter nominate all their
candidates for public office in and for Baltimore city and the several
counties of the State and shall elect all delegates to county, legislative
district, city or State conventions and all members of managing bodies
is said political parties, in and for Baltimore city and the several
counties of the State, and all precinct, ward, city and county executives,
or executive committees, whenever the political party usage provides for
such executive committee or any of the same, by means of primary
elections, conducted under and in accordance with the provisions of
this sub-title, and not otherwise, except as herein provided, and the
several boards of supervisors of elections shall not print on the official
ballot to be voted at any general or special election to be hereinafter
held the name or names of any such candidate or candidates for election
in Baltimore city or any of the counties of the State of any of said
parties who shall not be so nominated, and whose nomination shall not
be certified to them, or to the secretary of state, as having been so
nominated.

Provided, That the provisions of this sub-title requiring the nomina-
tion of candidates by direct vote shall not apply to the nomination of
such candidates for county offices, state senate, and members of the
house of delegates in the counties of Howard, Somerset, Washington,
Worcester, and Wicomico, except as hereinafter provided, but such
candidates shall be selected by a county convention, delegates to which
shall be selected in all respects as provided for in this sub-title, and the
nominations of such candidates by such convention shall be duly certified
by the chairman and secretary of such convention to the board of elec-
tion supervisors of said county, and it shall be the duty of said super-
visors to place the names of such candidates upon the official ballot in
the manner prescribed by the general election laws of this State, and
provided further that at the first primary election held under the
provisions of the foregoing proviso in each of said named counties, the
official ballots of the respective political parties participating therein
shall contain squares, properly designated, in which the voters of such
parties may by such cross mark in such square indicate their preference
for or against primaries in their respective parties by direct vote for
candidates for county offices, for the state senate, and for members of
the house of delegates; and provided further, that if the majority of
the votes cast by either of such parties in any such county so excepted
shall indicate a preference for direct primaries, then and in that event,
each county in which, by such direct vote, a preference has been so