PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY. 3929

judges and clerks of election. In counting the said ballots the judges of
election shall be governed by the manifest intent of the voter, where the
same can be ascertained, and a cross (X) mark protruding slightly
beyond any square in which the same should be made shall not be suffi-
cient cause to reject any ballot; and no ballots shall be wholly rejected if
more candidates under any one head or designation for office shall be
voted for than there are offices to be filled, but shall be counted for all
other candidates under other heads or designations for whom the same
may be properly marked.

1912, ch. 695, sec. 202.

611. The judges shall make duplicate statements or returns of the
result of the canvass of said votes, each of which shall, if possible, be
upon a single sheet of paper, and shall contain a caption containing the
day on which said election was held and the hours thereof, and showing
the whole number of votes given for each candidate, designating the office
for which they were given. Such statements or returns shall be printed,
or partly printed or written, and in case a proposition of any kind has
been submitted to the voters at any such election, it shall also show in like
manner the number of votes for and against such proposition, and at the
end of each such statement or return shall be printed or written a certificate
that the same is correct in all respects; which certificate and each sheet of
paper forming a part of the statement shall be subscribed by the judges
and clerks of such election.

If any judge or clerk shall decline to sign such return, he shall state
his reasons therefor in writing, and a copy thereof, signed by himself, shall
bo enclosed with each return; and each return or statement shall be en-
closed in an envelope which shall then be securely sealed and each of the
judges and clerks shall then write his name across the fold of the envelope;
one of which envelopes shall be directed to the Mayor and the other to
the City Council of said town of Laurel; the one addressed to the Mayor
shall be delivered to him, and the one addressed to the City Council shall
be delivered to the President of the City Council at the time hereinafter
mentioned.

1912, ch. 695, sec. 203.

612. The City Council shall meet on the Wednesday after each elec-
tion held under the provisions of this act at seven-thirty o'clock P. M. at
the City Hall, which shall be its regular place of meeting, at which meet-
ing it shall be the duty of the Mayor to be present, to receive the election
returns as provided in the preceding section, and it shall be the duty of
the said Mayor and City Council to issue certificates of election to the
persons who shall appear to have been elected and are returned elected
by the judges and clerks of election on or before the Saturday after any
such election, stating in each certificate the office to which the person there-
in named has been elected and his term of office.