584 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 292

CHAPTER 292.

AN ACT to repeal Section 186 of Article 33 of the Code of
Public Civil Laws, entitled "Elections, " sub-title "Primary
Elections, " and to re-enact the same with amendments.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That Section 186 of Article 33 of the Code of Public Civil
Laws, entitled "Elections, " sub-title "Primary Elections, " be
and the same is hereby repealed and re-enacted with amend-
ments so as to read as follows:

Nominations for Mayor, comptroller, president of the Sec-
ond Branch City Council and members of the City of Balti-
more shall be made by direct vote of the respective political
parties at primary elections to be held in all respects accord-
ing to the aforegoing provisions, applicable to primary elections
in Baltimore City, except that the day for holding the same
shall be the first Tuesday of April of the year in which the
Municipal Elections in said City of Baltimore are to be held on
a different day from the general election. At every general
registration held in Baltimore City, and in each and every
county of the State, subsequent to April 11, 1910, there shall be
provided in the registration books a distinct column headed
"party affiliations, " and the board of registers shall enter in this
column the name of the political party, if any, to which the
voter is inclined and with which the voter desires to have
himself recorded as affiliated. It shall be the duty of the
board of registry to explain to each voter that the statement
of such party affiliation does not bind him to vote for the
candidate of such party of any given election; also that he has
the right to decline to state any party affiliations; but that
no one who is not recorded upon the registry as affiliated with
a particular political party will be qualified to vote at sub-
sequent primary elections of said political party. Whenever
a voter declines to state his party affiliation, the word "de-
clined" shall be written opposite his name under such column,
so that there shall be written in such column opposite the name
of every registered voter, either his party affiliations or the
word "declined. " And in all primary elections thereafter held,
any person so registered as affiliated with a given political
party shall have the right to vote the official ballot of that
party and of no other; and at any intermediate registration sub-
sequent to the close of the next general registration, such voter
may appear before the board of registry and, upon his