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1338 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 29,
defect as to the person administering the oath, which certifi-
cate the law requires to be annexed to the returns.
Fourth, That the law expressly declares that either one of
the defects is sufficient to make any election in the City of
Baltimore void.
If it be contended that these non-conformities with law,
in respect to the official oath of Judges, are all embraced in
the words "want of qualification of any Judge or Judges of
Election, and are therefore expressly declared, (by Section
228 above cited), not to be fatal non-conformities if the elec-
tion be otherwise valid."
We reply:
First. That Sections 205 and 206 of the Local Law shows
very clearly what are the qualifications of a Judge of Elec-
tion, and that the word "qualification" in Section 228 was
never intended to apply to the oath of Judges, and thus to
override Section 9, Article 35, Public General Laws, (above
cited,) which expressly declares that every Judge of Election
"before he proceeds to act as such, shall take the following
oath, &c. Thus the taking of such oath is made a condition
precedent to authority to act as Judge, and until he has
taken such oath, the appointee of the Police Board has no more
power to act as Judge than has any by-stander ; and any
three by-standers might set up an opposition polls and hold
just as valid an election as could be held by the appointees
of the Police Board, unless the latter shall first have taken
be oath required by the law.
Second. That if we are wrong in the position above as-
sumed, and if in fact the word "qualification" does include
official oath, our objection is equally fatal, for the exception
of Section 228 is only us to the want of qualification of
Judges, cot of Clerks. The defects as to the Clerks of Elec-
tions, therefore, remains among the number of fatal non-con-
formities with law, under the provision of Section 227. It
moreover renders the exceptions of Section 228, as to the
qualification of Judges of no effect whatever, since the elec-
tion is not, (in the words of the law,) "otherwise valid."
In addition to these fatal defects which apply to every
precinct in the city, there are other requirements of law
equally imperative, which have all been disregarded in one
or more precincts, but none in all the precincts.
For instance, we find in many precincts :
First That judges were not discreet persons, and legal
voters of the precin.
Second. That the polls were held at illegal places
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