1442 ARTICLE 33

such affidavit shall be made shall retain, index and record the same, and
shall be entitled to demand and receive for each affidavit sworn the sum of
thirty cent's, and for indexing and recording the affidavit and acknowledg-
ment thereto the same compensation as allowed by law for indexing and
recording deeds; such costs to be paid to said clerks by the county commis-
sioners and Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, respectively. Such affi-
davits shall not be admissible in evidence as evidence of the right of the
persons making the same to registration unless they are recorded within
five days from the date of the acknowledgments thereto, and a duly certi-
fied copy thereof shall be receivable in evidence in the same manner as a
certified copy of a deed. False swearing in any of such affidavits shall
be deemed to be perjury, and shall be punishable as perjury is punishable
by the Code of Public General Laws, Article 27, title "Crimes and Pun-
ishments," sub-title "Perjury." Said officers of registration shall require
the production of such affidavits duly recorded, or a duly certified copy
thereof in all cases where they have reason to suspect that the person
applying to be registered as a qualified voter has lost his residence by
reason of his removal from the State, as hereinbefore mentioned; and they
may also in such cases put any question which they may deem proper to
such applicant concerning the place where he dwelt in the county or legis-
lative district before such removal out of the State, his occupation before
such removal and since the time when he so removed, and when he returned,
and all other pertinent facts and circumstances touching the right of such
person to be registered, and they may require the truth of the answers
of all persons to such questions to be corroborated by independent evidence,
if, in their discretion they shall think proper, and if in answer to their
questions or upon testimony produced before them, it shall appear to their
satisfaction that the person applying to be registered had left the State
without any intention of returning, or with the intention of returning at
some indefinite time in the future, he shall not be entitled to be registered
as a legal voter; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to
United States Senators and Representatives in Congress from Maryland,
nor to any judge or justice of any court of the United States in case such
judge or justice was at the time of his appointment to such office, or there-
after became, a registered voter of the State of Maryland, during such
period as said judge or justice shall continue in the service of the United
States. Any officer of registration who shall fail or refuse to perform the
duty imposed upon him by this section shall be subject to the penalties im-
posed by Section 140 of this Article.

A man who takes his family away for the summer, during which period he occupies
a room in a nearby city outside of Maryland, and rents his home in Maryland under
a short-term lease at end of which he returns to it, and does not make affidavit pre-
scribed by this section, does not lose his right to vote in Maryland. Garret v. Bd. of
Registry, 139 Md. 392.

Sec. 14, ch. 573, of acts of 1890 (providing for an affidavit in case of change of resi-
dence), was constitutional and it applied to a person who left the state prior to its
adoption, and also to federal employees. Southerland v. Norris, 74 Md. 326.

The portion of act of 1890, ch. 573, sec. 14, relative to the presumption of an intention
to abandon residence in this state unless the affidavit is made, applied. The presumption
is conclusive Bowling v. Turner, 78 Md. 599; Sterling v. Horner, 74 Md. 573; Lancaster
v. Herbert, 74 Md. 334; Southerland v. Norris, 74 Md. 326.

Under act of 1890, ch. 573, sec. 14, the affidavit, if made, is not conclusive. To be
entitled to register, applicant must have returned to the state within the prescribed
period. Lancaster v. Herbert, 74 Md. 334.

The affidavit required by act of 1890, ch. 573, sec. 14, held, under circumstances of
the case, not to be a condition precedent to a right to register. McLane v. Hobbs, 74
Md. 172.

Cited but not construed in Ticer v. Thomas, 74 Md. 343; Ritter v. Etchison, 86
Md. 208.