384 CITY OP BALTIMORE. [ART. 4

request made to said board in writing by the executive committee
of the city convention of the party holding the election; after
the election is closed any candidate, or a person designated by
him, and such other persons whom, in the judgment of the judges
of election, it may be proper to admit, to guarantee the fairness
of the count, shall be entitled to be present during the counting

of the ballots.

1886, ch. 502.

287. When the poll shall be closed, the box wherein the bal-
lots are deposited shall immediately thereafter be opened by the
judge or judges of election, and the said judge or judges shall
publicly, in the presence of the persons designated in the
preceding section, carefully take out the said ballots and read dis-
tinctly and aloud the name or names written or printed thereon,
respectively, and the clerks of said election shall carefully enter
and keep an account of the same on the poll-book, so that the
number of votes for each candidate tallied thereon maybe readily

cast up and known.

Ibid.

288. If upon opening any of said ballots there be found any
more names written or printed thereon than there ought to be, or
if any two or more of such ballots be deceitfully folded together,
or if the purpose for which the vote is given is not plainly desig-
nated thereon, such ballot shall be rejected and not counted.

Ibid.

289. As soon as the ballots shall be read off and counted, and
the number for each candidate reckoned up and ascertained, the
judge or judges of election shall make out, under his or their
hands, attested by the clerks of election, or one of them, on the
poll-book, a plain, fair and distinct certificate of the number of
votes which shall have been then and there given for each candi-
date, distinguishing the station or office for which he has been
voted; such certificate to be as near as possible in the form of the
like certificate required from the judges of election under the
general election law of this State.

Ibid.

290. The return judges of election shall return, on the day
following the day on which any election shall be held under this