806 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 446

such part interest must be of the value according to such
assessment of at least three hundred dollars, and he or she
must be at least twenty-five years of age; and the term of
office of Mayor shall be two years, or until his or her suc-
cessor shall be elected and qualified; and the term of office
of Councilmen shall be three years, or until their respective
successors shall be elected or appointed and qualified and the
present Mayor and all the present Councilmen of Pocomoke
City shall each continue in office and serve out in full the
respective term for which they were elected under the previous
charter of the town and until their successors and the suc-
cessor of each of them shall be duly elected or appointed and
qualified under the provisions of this Act.

256. The male and female citizens of Pocomoke City above
the age of twenty-one years, being citizens of the United
States, who have resided within the corporate limits of said
town six months next preceding the election and who were
qualified voters at the last State or Congressional election,
shall on the first Tuesday in April, nineteen hundred and
twenty-eight, and on the same day every second year there-
after, elect by ballot one person to be Mayor of said town
and also on the first Tuesday in April, nineteen hundred and
twenty-seven, elect by ballot one person to be Councilman of
said town and on the same day in every year thereafter the
said qualified citizens of Pocomoke City shall elect by ballot
one person to be Councilman to succeed the Councilman whose
term of office is then about to expire. Provided that nothing
in this Act shall in any way affect the term of office of the
present Mayor and the present members of the Council.

256-A. Official ballots shall be prepared and printed for
such town elections by the Mayor and Council and they shall
cause to be printed on said official ballots the names of all
candidates for office to be voted for, who shall become duly
qualified by the payment of the sum of five dollars to and the
filing of a certificate in writing with, the town clerk of Poco-
moke City, containing the name of the person seeking office, his
or her address and the office for which he or she seeks to be
elected and duly acknowledged by the person filing such certifi-
cate before an officer duly authorized to take acknowledgments,
who shall append a certificate of such acknowledgment. All
certificates must be filed and payments made by candidates as
aforesaid not less than twenty days before said town election.