1846 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 749

34.

(d) In Baltimore City the Board may remove the name
of any deceased person from the registration books or records,
upon it being reliably reported to the Board that such person
is deceased, and without the necessity of personal knowledge
of such event. The Board shall investigate and confirm the
fact of such decease in order to establish it beyond reasonable
doubt, and shall follow the procedure set hereinabove in this
section before removing any such name from the registration
books or records.

68. The polling places shall be opened by the judges of
election in Baltimore City at 6 o'clock A. M. and in the counties
at 7 o'clock A. M., and shall be kept open in Baltimore City
and in the counties until 7 o'clock P. M. of the same day,
when they shall be closed; provided, however, that the Super-
visors of Elections in any county may provide that all or any
of the polling places in such county may be opened not earlier
than 6 o'clock A. M. and not later than 8 o'clock A. M. If
any judge or clerk shall not be present at the expiration of
fifteen minutes after the time for the opening of the polls the
judge or judges present shall fill the place of the absent judge
or clerk by appointing in his stead a person of the same
political party as the absentee. One of the judges shall ad-
minister to such substitute the oath required of the judge or
clerk originally appointed. After the opening of the polls
no judge or clerk shall absent himself therefrom until all the
ballots cast shall have been counted and the returns com-
pleted. If in case of absolute necessity, any judge or clerk
in attendance shall be compelled to absent himself, he shall
appoint some fit person of the same political party with him-
self to act in his stead until his return, having first ad-
ministered to such substitute the same oath as he himself has
taken. Blank forms for the appointment of the substitute
judges and clerks and the oath aforesaid shall be supplied by
the Supervisors, and the oath when administered shall be pre-
served and returned by the judges to the Supervisors. The
appointment and swearing in of all such substitutes and the
reason therefor, and the time when such substitute began and
ceased to serve shall be noted by the judges in the poll books
of the precinct or on loose-leaf pages inserted in the binders
containing the precinct cards; such substitute shall cease to
act whenever the judge or clerk in whose stead he was ap-
pointed shall be present.

53. (a) Official ballots shall be prepared and printed for
such primary election in Baltimore City and in the several
Counties, respectively, by the said several Boards of Super-