370 CITY OF BALTIMORE. [ART. 4.

respectively commanded to preserve the peace at and about the
places of voting of their respective precincts from the time that
the polls shall have been opened therein until the returns of the
votes taken at any election therein shall have been made; and
they, and each of them shall have full power, and it shall be
their duty, to keep the polls of their respective precincts clear, or
cause them to be kept clear, so that ingress thereto and egress
therefrom shall be free and unobstructed to the voters; and to
prevent and suppress riots, tumult, violence, disorder and all
other improper practices tending to the intimidation or obstruc-
tion of voters, or the disturbance or interruption of elections.

F. L. L, (1860,) art. 4, sec. 208.

255. The said judges, or a majority of them in each precinct,
shall have power, and are directed to select the places of voting
in and for their respective precincts, and to take care that the
same be as near the centre of such precincts as may be, and upon
an open, public street, in a free, accessible and convenient loca-
tion, and that no tavern, liquor store, grog-shop or other place at
which liquor shall usually, or at the time, be sold, shall be by
them taken or used as a place of voting; and they shall take all
such measures, whether by the erection of barriers, or establishing
limits around the polls, or otherwise, as may be necessary and
proper in their judgment to prevent crowding at or near the
polls, or the interruption of voters in approaching or returning
from the same; and it shall be their duty, by proper precautions
in advance and by such regulations and arrangements beforehand,
or on the day of election, as may be suitable, to secure the peaceful
conduct of such elections as may be held during their official
terms, and the protection of the voters and the ballot-boxes from
violence and fraud.

Ibid. sec. 209

256. In order to enable the judges to discharge the duties
imposed on them by this sub-title of this article, or any other law,
they, and each of them, shall have full power and authority upon
every day of election, and until they shall have made up the
return of the votes polled, to commit to the jail of Baltimore