HARRY W. NICE, GOVERNOR. 187

71. Each political party or other body of voters having a
candidate or candidates duly nominated shall have the right
to designate and keep a challenger and watcher at each place
of registration and election, who shall be assigned to such
positions near the judges of election, inside the registration
or polling-room as to enable them to see each person as he
offers to register or vote, and they shall be protected in the
discharge of their duty by the judges of election and the police.
A certificate signed by the candidates or by the presiding officer
of the chief managing committee of their party in the city or
county shall be sufficient evidence of the right of such chal-
lenger and watcher to be present in the registration or polling-
room. In case any challenger or watcher does not produce
such certificate, the judges of election shall recognize a chal-
lenger or watcher vouched for by the persons present belong-
ing to such political party or by the judge representing such
party. Such challenger or watcher shall have the right to
remain in the polling-room outside the rail hereinafter men-
tioned from the time the polls are opened until they are
closed, and after that time he shall be permitted to remain
within the rail until the returns are completed. The refusal
to permit any such challenger so to remain shall be a mis-
demeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand
dollars, or by imprisonment, not exceeding one year, or by
both fine and imprisonment, but it shall be unlawful for any
such challenger to inquire or ascertain for what candidate
or candidates any voter may intend to vote or has voted, or
to confer in the polling-room with any voter or to assist him
in the preparation of his ballot or in the operation of a voting
machine, and any challenger offering or attempting to do so
may lawfully be ejected by the judges and shall also be subject
to the punishment hereinafter provided. A challenger or
watcher may be removed at any time by the same person or
committee or by the chairman of the committee which ap-
pointed him. Citizens other than accredited challengers or
watchers who desire to challenge the vote of any person then
inside the polling-room shall be permitted to enter said room
for that purpose, but a majority of the judges may limit the
number of persons to be allowed in the polling-room at any
one time for such purpose, and all such persons shall leave the
polling-room as soon as the right to vote of the person chal-
lenged by them shall have been decided.

72. Each clerk of election in the counties and (prior to
the election of 1940) in Baltimore City, and in 1940 and
thereafter each clerk of election in those precincts of Bal-
timore City in which paper ballots shall be used shall keep
a poll-book containing a column headed "Number, " and an-