552 ELECTIONS. [ART. 33

Election Returns.
78.

While ballot boxes are not to be opened so as to permit the acts of sworn
officers to be enquired into without an adequate and well-defined cause,
yet when an indictment has been returned by a grand jury, a sufficient
prima facie case has been made out for the opening of the boxes. An
inspection and count of the ballots held proper in a criminal case. The
grand jury held to have had the right to have the ballot box and ballots
before them, and that the presence of a police commissioner and a super-
visor of elections in the grand jury room for the purpose and in the manner
testified to by them, did not prejudice the traverser. Cochran v. State, 119
Md. 550.

Canvassing Boards.

82.

This section referred to in construing section 188—see notes thereto.
Usilton v. Bramble, 117 Md. 13.

83.

This section referred to in construing section 188—see notes thereto.
Usilton v. Bramble, 117 Md. 13.

1904, art. 33, sec. 85. 1896, ch. 202, sec. 80. 1914, ch. 474, sec. 85.
87. The Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Clerk of the
Court of Appeals and Attorney General shall constitute the Board of
State Canvassers, three of whom shall be a quorum. The Secretary of
State shall appoint the meeting of the said Board, to be held at his
office within thirty days after any State election, or any election, at
which a candidate for United States Senator be elected; if a majority
do not attend, those present shall adjourn until the next day, at which
time they shall proceed, without further delay, to canvass the votes.
The Board, when thus formed, shall from the certified copies of the
statements made by the boards of city and county canvassers, proceed
to make a statement of the whole number of votes given at such election
for the several candidates for the offices named in said statements and
thereupon proceed to determine and declare what persons have been,
by the greatest number of votes, elected to such offices, and each of
them; they shall make and subscribe on a proper statement a certificate
of such determination, and shall deliver the same to the Secretary of
State. If any one of the canvassers shall dissent from the decision of
the board, he shall state at large in writing, the reasons for such dis-
sent. If any of the acts or proceedings of the Board shall appear to
any one of the canvassers to be illegal and irregular, such canvassers
shall protest against the same, in writing, setting forth distinctly the
grounds of his protest; the canvassers so dissenting or protesting shall
deliver his dissent or protest, signed with his proper name, to the Sec-
retary of State who shall file the same in his office, and he shall also
keep on file in his office the copies of the statements made by the board
of city and county canvassers. The board shall have power to adjourn,
from day to day, during a period not exceeding five days.