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614 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 3,
are to administer its machinery, and plainly set out
the mode of their appointment and the necessary steps
for their qualification. In the case at law the judges
were neither appointed in the manner fixed by law,
nor did they qualify according to its provisions. This
committee must, therefore, determine that they could
not hold a legal election. There is an oath of office
to be taken by the judges of election as well as the
ballot clerks. The terms and language of this oath
become as much a part of the election iaw, as any
other provision of it, and can no more be evaded or
neglected than any other part of the law. The evi-
dence shows that this most necessary step, and the
only one that could give the power to legally act, was
entirely omitted in the case of both the judges and
the ballot clerk who acted upon that occasion. The
oath prescribed by law was not administered to either
one of them, and they were not authorized to act in
that capacity. But even conceding the fact that the
proper oath had been administered, was the Repub-
lican Judge authorized to do so ? In other words, had
the contingency for that act arisen? We think not.
Article 33, section 45, of Public General Laws, pro-
vides that if any of the Judges should fail to attend
at the place election, "at the time prescribed for open-
ing the election," then other persons may be sworn in.
by the Judge or Judges who do attend. Now the
committee cannot find that this contingency ever hap-
pened in this case. The regularly appointed judges of
election did meet, and did qualify by taking the oath
of office, at the time and place for holding the elec-
tion. They were prepared as far as they could be to
conduct the election according to the law under
which they were acting, and so remained ready and
willing to act from 8 A. M. until 12 1/2 P. M. But they
were supplanted by other judges because they were
unwilling, and refused to receive illegal ballots. The
provisions of the Act of 1890, chapter 538, relating to
the appointment and qualification of election officers
are mandatory, and must be strictly complied with.
If this be not so, the law in question, that was pre-
pared and put upon the statute books for the purpose
of securing to the people a fair and free exercise of
their sufferage, must entirely fail of its beneficial re-
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