ELECTIONS 1529

vote of the respective political parties at primary elections to be held in
all respects according to the aforegoing provisions, applicable to primary
elections in Baltimore City, except that the day for holding the same shall
be fixed by agreement between the governing bodies of said political parties
for Baltimore City not earlier than the first day of April and not later
than the tenth day of April of the year in which the Municipal Elections
in said City of Baltimore are to be held on a different day from the gen-
eral election. In case such governing bodies fail to agree on a day within
the period fixed aforesaid, said primary election shall be held on the first
Tuesday of April; provided, however, that said primary election for the
year 1939 shall be held on Wednesday, April twelfth. At every general
registration held in Baltimore City, and in each and every County of the
State, subsequent to April 11, 1910, there shall be provided in the regis-
tration books a distinct column headed "party affiliations," and the board
of registers shall enter in this column the name of the political party, if
any, to which the voter is inclined and with which the voter desires to
have himself recorded as affiliated. It shall be the duty of the board of
registry to explain to each voter that the statement of such party affilia-
tion does not bind him to vote for the candidate of such party of any given
election; also that he has the right to decline to state any party affiliations;
but that no one who is not recorded upon the registry as affiliated with a
particular political party will be qualified to vote at subsequent primary
elections of said political party. Whenever a voter declines to state his
party affiliation, the word "declined" shall be written opposite his name
under such column, so that there shall be written in such column opposite
the name of every registered voter, either his party affiliations or the word
"declined." And in all primary elections thereafter held, any person so
registered as affiliated with a given political party shall have the right to
vote the official ballot of that party and of no other; and at any inter-
mediate registration subsequent to the close of the next general registra-
tion, such voter may appear before the board of registry and, upon his
identity being established to the satisfaction of the majority of the board
of registry, to make, alter or strike out any entry in the column headed
"party affiliations" opposite his name in the registry; it shall be the duty
of the board of registry to enter in the column headed "remarks" the fact
that such entry was made, altered or stricken out, and the date thereof.

Any registered voter who has declined to affiliate with any political
party and opposite whose name under the column "party affiliation" is
written the word "declined," or the word "independent" or any other word
showing a failure to affiliate with any political party, and who has not
appeared before the board of registry as hereinbefore set forth and
affiliated with some political party prior to the primary election shall not
be permitted to vote at such primary election or any subsequent primary
election until he has so affiliated with the party in whose primary he
desires to vote.

Construing this section in connection with sec. 233, where a voter is entered "declined"
he cannot be said to have "had his affiliation registered." Purpose of these sections.
An unaffiliated voter, so far as a primary election is concerned, is in practically the
same situation as one who is unregistered. The "supplemental" registration directed
to be held by the Baltimore City charter on the first and second Mondays of April
preceding municipal election in May, is an "intermediate registration" within meaning
of this section; a registered voter who is entered "declined" may have that entry
cancelled and declare his affiliation at such registration with the right to vote in
subsequent primary elections. Murphy v. Wachter, 126 Md. 564.