4772 ARTICLE 22.

as near as may be in width, depth, and length, strapped and secured on
each edge and corner with iron or brass, so as to prevent it from being
easily broken, and shall have a wooden lid which shall be fastened with
brass or iron hinges and a good lock, and there shall be in the lid a slit
large enough to admit a single folded ballot at one time, and the sides of
the box shall be of clear plate glass not less than one-eighth of an inch in
thickness. As soon as the polls are opened, and immediately before any
ballots are received by the judges, they shall open every ballot box, used

or to be used, and permit all persons present to examine such ballot box
and every part thereof, so that they may be satisfied as to the structure
hereof and that said boxes are empty. The boxes shall then be locked and
the key delivered to one of the judges, and shall not be again opened until
the closing of the polls; and until such closing each box shall be kept con-
stantly in sight of all persons entitled to be present, and shall be so placed
that the voter offering his ballot, and the judges and clerks and all persons
entitled to be present, may conveniently see every ballot deposited therein.

1892, ch. 55, sec. 161T.

284. Hereafter all ballots to be used and cast in any election to be
held in the city of Hagerstown and the several wards thereof, shall be
printed and distributed at the expense of the said city of Hagerstown;
the word election in this section shall embrace all voters upon questions
submitted to the vote of the people, but not primary elections.

1892, ch. 55, sec. 161U.

285. Any convention as hereinafter denned, held for the purpose of
making nominations to public office, and also registered voters to the num-
ber hereinafter specified, may nominate candidates for public officers to
be filled by election within the city of Hagerstown, or any part or parts
thereof, a convention within the meaning of this act is an organized as-
semblage of delegates representing a political party which at the last
general election before the holding of such convention, polled at least one
per cent, of the entire vote cast in the city of Hagerstown, or ward for
which the nomination is made; nominations may also be made by means
of primary elections, without the intervention of any convention by any
party which polled said proportion of the entire vote of the city of Hagers-
town at the last preceding general municipal election.

1892, ch. 55, sec. 161V.

286. All nominations made by any such convention, or by means of
any primary convention, shall be certified as follows: There shall be in

either case a certificate in writing, in which shall be stated the name of

each person nominated, his residence and the office for which he is nomi-
nated, and the name of the party by which he has been nominated; if the
nomination be by a convention, the certificate shall be signed by the pre-
siding officer and secretary of the convention, and their signatures thereto
shall be acknowledged by them before some officer competent to take
acknowledgments of deeds; if the nomination be by means of a primary