HERBERT R. O'CONOR, GOVERNOR. 397

ballot boxes containing the ballots shall be kept by the
Supervisors of Election for thirty days from the date of said
election, unless there is a recount, in which case they shall
be kept until said recounting is finally concluded. After
the thirty days has elapsed, or the recount has been con-
cluded, the Supervisors of Election shall open said ballot
boxes and destroy said ballots.

The Mayor and Common Council shall on the first
Wednesday after each election held under the provisions of
this Act, convene to receive the returns of election. When
said meeting has been called to order, the Supervisors of
Election for each precinct shall attend and present to the
Mayor and to the Town Clerk and Treasurer the returns of
election respectively addressed to them. The Mayor and
Common Council shall then examine said returns and if they
find them to be signed by all the Judges and Clerks of Elec-
tion, and identical, they shall canvass them and declare those
persons elected who shall appear from the face of the re-
turns to have received the highest number of votes for the
various offices voted for, and shall issue certificates of elec-
tion to said persons. In case any proposition or question
other than the election of an officer shall have been submitted
to the voters at said election, the Mayor and Common Council
shall in like manner declare whether or not such proposition
has been carried or defeated.

In case the returns are not signed by all the Judges and
Clerks of Election for each precinct, or in case the two sets
of returns for said precinct are not identical, the Mayor and
Common Council shall consider such returns and the state-
ments, if any are accompanying them, signed by the Elec-
tion Officials refusing to sign the returns, and they shall upon
these papers determine which parties, if any, are elected to
the various offices, and shall issue certificates according to
their determination. They shall in like manner, in case any
proposition or question other than the election of officials
has been submitted to the voters at said election, determine
whether or not said proposition has been carried or defeated.

Any defeated candidate at such election may contest the
same and the Judge of the Circuit Court for Prince George's
County shall have jurisdiction to determine such contest,
and may adopt such modes of proceeding and adjudging
costs in cases of contested election as to him may seem most
satisfactory. No such contest shall, however, be considered
unless a petition is filed in the Circuit Court for Prince
George's County within seven days, exclusive of Sundays and
legal holidays, after the decision of the Mayor and Common
Council of Mount Rainier on said election shall be made.