ELECTIONS. 1271

shall retire to one of said booths with the two clerks, and then and there
one of said clerks, in the presence of the other, shall mark the ballot as such
voter shall direct, the voter himself naming one by one the candidates for
whom he desires his ballot to be marked and not indicating the candidates
by a general designation as the candidates of any one political party. The
ballots shall not be read to such voter, nor shall any suggestion of any kind
be made by either of said two clerks to show him as to how his ballot is to
be marked, but the only assistance which it shall be lawful for the clerks
to give him is to mark the ballot as he, without prompting or suggestion
from them, or either of them shall direct, but no ballot shall be marked
under this section until a majority of the judges of election shall be satisfied
of the truth of the fact stated in such affidavit. Voters who are not disabled
by blindness or physical injury from marking their ballots shall not be
entitled to receive assistance in marking them. And with the exception in
favor of persons blind or incapable from physical injury of marking their
ballots without assistance, no distinction or discrimination in the matter
of assistance in marking ballots shall be made for or against any duly regis-
tered voter for any other cause whatever.

The court declines to pass on constitutionality of act of 1901, ch. 2 (denying aid
to illiterates), but even if that act had not been passed so as to leave act of 1896,
ch. 202, as to illiterates being entitled to assistance, in force, a mandamus could not
issue directing the judges of election to give such assistance, since the act pro-
vided that it was to be given by clerks. A mandamus directing such assistance will
not be issued after election is over, nor will mandamus be issued where defendants
are only authorized to act under conditions which do not exist in the case. Summerson
v. Schilling, 94 Md. 605. And see Summerson v. Schilling, 94 Md. 589.

An. Code, sec. 70. 1904, sec. 68. 1896, ch. 202, sec. 63.

77. Any voter who shall, by accident or mistake, spoil his ballot so
that he cannot conveniently vote the same may, on returning said spoiled
ballot to the judge holding the ballots, receive another in place of it, with
his name and the same number written on the coupon thereof, as on the bal-
lot so returned, but no voter shall receive more than three ballots from said
judge for the reason aforesaid. The ballots thus returned shall be imme-
diately cancelled by endorsing thereon the word " spoiled," and, together
with those not distributed to the voters, shall be preserved and returned to
the supervisors of elections, as hereinafter provided. Every voter who does
not vote any ballot delivered to him shall, before leaving the polling place,
return such ballot to the judge from whom he received it, and said returned
ballot shall be retained as if said ballot had been spoiled. When anyone
claiming to be a person whose name appears upon the registers shall make
application for a ballot, his right to vote at that election may be challenged,
but shall not be determined until after he has marked his ballot and deliv-
ered it to the judge at the ballot box. The person challenging shall assign
his reason therefor, and one of the judges shall thereupon administer to
the person offering to vote an oath to make true answers to questions, and
if he shall take said oath, he shall be questioned by the judge or judges
touching said cause of challenge, and he may also be questioned by the
person challenging him in regard thereto, and if a majority of the judges
are of opinion that he is the person so registered, his vote shall be received