ART: 33] REGISTRATION. 1013

other person on the registry, or in registering or failing to
erase the name of any fictitious, deceased or disqualified person,
may at any time, either before or after the last session of the
board of registry, but not later than the Saturday next prece-
ding the election, if in the city of Baltimore, and not later
than the Tuesday next preceeding the election, if in the coun-
ties, file a petition, verified by affidavit, in the circuit court for
the county, or, if the cause of complaint arises in Baltimore
city, in any court of Baltimore city, setting forth the ground
of his application, and asking to have the registry corrected.
The court shall forthwith set the petition for hearing, and direct
summons to be issued requiring the board of registry to attend
at the hearing or by counsel; and when the object of the peti-
tion is to strike off the name of any person alleged to be
fictitious, deceased or disqualified, summons shall also be issued
to such person, which shall be served by the sheriff within the
time therein designated, at his place of residence given in the
registry. If the petition shall allege that any person registered
in any precinct does not reside in such precinct, it shall be
sufficient for the petitioner to show that the person to whose
registration he objects did not at the time when he was so reg-
istered reside at the particular house or place described as his resi-
dence on the registry; but the person to whose registration objec-
tion is so made shall have the right to show by affirmative proof
that, although he may not have had a legal residence at the
place described by him as his residence at the time of his
registration, he had at such time a legal residence in the said
precinct. In determining whether any person is or is not a
resident of any voting precinct, it shall be presumed that if a
person is shown to have acquired a residence in one locality, he
retains the same until it is affirmatively shown that he has
acquired a residence in another locality, and it shall also be
presumed that if a person is shown not to reside at the
dwelling given in the entries relating to him on the registra-
tion books, he is not a resident of the said precinct, unless it
should be affirmatively shown that he is such resident, and the
entries made in such registration books shall not be considered
by the court as evidence of any fact therein stated, but the case
shall be heard de novo. At the hearing, evidence subject only
to the ordinary rules of evidence (as modified by the provisions
of this section), may be introduced for or against the applica-
tion, and the judge shall dispose of the matter summarily by
granting or refusing the order prayed, and the clerk of the court
shall make a minute of the proceeding. The cost of proceed-