riage or marriage settlement) having been so possessed six months, shall be
qualified to vote for delegates to serve in general assembly, for the county,
city, town, borough or election district respectively, in which the land lieth.
If the fifty acres of land, being one entire parcel, lie in several counties, the
holder shall vote in that county wherein the greater part of the land lieth
only; and if the twenty-five acres of land, being one entire parcel lie in sev-
eral counties, the holder shall vote in that county wherein the house stand-
eth only. In right of land held by parceners, joint tenants, or tenants in
common, qualified to exercise the right of suffrage according to the former
constitution and laws, but one vote shall be given by all the holders capable
of voting, who may be present, and agree to vote for the same candidate or
candidates, unless the quantity of land, in case partition had been made
thereof, be sufficient to entitle every holder present to vote separately; or
unless some one or more of the holders may lawfully vote in right of another
estate or estates in the same county ; in which case, the others may vote$ if
holding solely, they might have voted.
4. Every white male citizen of the commonwealth, resident therein, aged
twenty-one years and upwards, being qualified to exercise the right of suf-
frage, according to the fourteenth section of the third article of the constitu-
tion, shall be qualified to vote for members of the general assembly, in the
manner therein prescribed. If the land in the said constitution mentioned
and referred to, being one entire parcel, lie in several counties, and be in-
sufficient in value to entitle the person interested therein to vote in all the
said counties, such person, whether he be possessed of an estate of freehold
or leasehold ; whether he be tenant in common, joint tenant or parcener,
shall vote in that county wherein the greater part of the land lieth only;
and any citizen claiming the right to vote, in consequence of being entitled
to a reversion, or vested remainder in fee, expectant on an estate for life or
516 ADDENDA TO THE GAZETTEER.
lives, in land, which, being one entire parcel, may happen to lie in several
counties, and be insufficient in value to entitle such citizen to vote in all the
said counties, shall vote in that county wherein the greater part of the land
lieth only. In case of two or more tenants in common, joint tenants or par-
ceners, in possession, reversion or remainder, having an interest in land,
the value whereof shall be insufficient to entitle them all to vote, and who,
not being qualified to exercise the right of suffrage, according to the former
constitution and laws, have had that right conferred upon them by the pre-
sent constitution, their vote or votes shall in such case be given in manner
following, that is to say : if the value of land be sufficient to entitle them to
one vote only, the same shall be given by all the said tenants in common,
joint tenants or parceners, capable of voting, who may be present, and agree
to vote for the same candidate or candidates. If the value of the land be suf-
ficient to entitle them to more than one vote, the votes to which they are en-
titled, shall be given by all the said tenants in common, joint tenants or par-
ceners, capable of voting, who may be present, and agree as to the candi-
date or candidates to whom the said votes shall be given. No one. of any
number of such tenants in common, joint tenants or parceners, shall give
more than one vote at the same election ; nor shall any greater number of
votes be given by such tenants in common, joint tentants or parceners, than
the value of the undivided land held by them may entitle them to give, ac-
cording to the constitution. When a vote or votes shall have been given as
aforesaid, by such tenants in common, joint tenants or parceners, the whole
of the said tenants in common, joint tenants and parceners, not having been
present, and not having agreed to the said vote or votes, if he or they, who
were absent at the giving of the said vote or votes, should afterwards appear
at the said election, before the taking of the votes is at an end, and to the of-
ficer conducting the said election, object to the said votes as given, the same
shall be stricken from the poll. When an election shall be held at differ-
ent places in the same county, and such tenants in common, joint tenants or
parceners, entitled to only one vote, shall be polled at different places, and
for a different candidate or candidates, their votes shall be stricken from the
poll. When an election shall be held at different places in the same coun-
ty, and such tenants in common, joint tenants or parceners, entitled to give
more votes than one, shall give their votes at different places, and in oppo-
sition to each other, the said voles shall be stricken from the poll, if it shall
appear that all the said tenants in common, joint tenants or parceners, did
not agree, before such votes were polled, to whom they should be given.
|n case of two or more of such tenants in common, joint tenants or parce-
ners in possession, reversion or remainder, having interest in land, the va-
lue whereof shall be insufficient to entitle them all to vote, if some one or
more of them may lawfully vote in right of another estate or estates in the
same county, the others may vote in the same manner as if he or they,
holding such other estate or estates in the same county, had no interest
whatever in the undivded land belonging to the said tenants in common,
joint tenants or parceners.
5. If any person shall vote a second time at any election for members of
general assembly ; or if any person shall claim and exercise the right of suf-
frage m consequence of having paid a part of the revenue of the'eommon-
wealth, with which he may have been, by his own procurement, falsely as-
sessed; each and every such person shall, for his offence, forfeit and pay to
the commonwealth, for the benefit of the literary fund, the sum of thirty-three
VIRGINIA ELECTION LAWS. 517
dollars thirty-three cents, recoverable by motion in the superior or inferior
court of law held for the county, city, town or borough, in which the offence
is committed, in the name and on behalf of the president and directors of the
literary fund, provided ten days notice shall have been given of such motion.
6. Every elector going t<$, abiding at, and returning from, an election,
shall be privileged from arrest one day for every twenty miles he shall ne-
cessarily travel, exclusive of the day of election: and any process against
such elector, executed during such privilege, shall be void.
7. And it shall be the duty of the sheriff or other officer conducting such
election, not to enter on the poll the vote of any person who may offer to
vote, unless he believes such person to be qualiiied to vote, or unless such
person shall take an oath, which the said sheriff or other officer conducting
said election, is hereby authorised to administer, or make solemn affirma-
tion before the said sheriff or other officer conducting the said election, in
this form: "/, A. B. do swear, (or do solemnly affirm, as the case may be,)
that I do in my conscience believe myself to be duly qualified to vote for a
delegate or delegates for the county, city, town, borough, or election district
of , or for a senator for the district of which the county, city, town,
borough, or (lectio >b district of is a part, to serve in the general as-
sembly of this commonwealth: So help me God. 11 Of which oath or affir-
mation, a note shall be made in the poll book opposite, and referring to, the
name of the person swearing or affirming. The making such oath or af-_
firmation, or any other oath or affirmation by this act required, falsely, shall
be perjury.
8. In the case of an election ot a delegate or delegates for a county, city*
town, or borough, the candidate or candidatrs appearing to have the greatest
number of votes, shall be considered elected; or when the greatest number-
of votes for several candidates, if it be an election of a delegate or delegates,
for a county, city, town or borough, shall be equal to one another, the she-
riff or other officer who conducted the election at the courthouse, may and
shall declare which of the candidates he will elect, notwithstanding his vote.
as an elector may have been previously entered on the poll.
9. The officers conducting elections at the court-house of each county*
city, town, or borough, within the senatorial districts of this commonwealth,
shall meet at the times and places herein above directed, and from the said
polls of their respective counties, cities, towns, and boroughs, shall certify as
the senator elected, the man who shall have the greatest number of votes in
the whole district; and if the greatest number of votes for several persons
to be a senator be equal to one another, and the votes of the returning offi-
cers be equal also, it shall be decided by a lot taken by such returning offi-
cers at their said meeting; a copy of which certificate shall be forthwith set
up by them at the front door of the court-house of the county, city, town, or
borough, at which their said meeting may be held, informing the public of
the name of the senator elected in manner aforesaid; and another copy
thereof shall be by them delivered to the clerk of the said county, city, town,
or borough, to be by him safely kept and preserved in his office; and the
said clerk shall suffer any candidate or elector, at any time, to take a copy
thereof.
10. No elector shall be admitted to a poll a second time at one and the,
same election, although at the first time he shall not have voted for as many
candidates as by law he might have voted for. If the electors, who appear,
be so numerous, that they cannot all be polled before sun-setting, or if by
rain or rise of water courses, many of the electors may have been hindered
518 VIRGINIA ELECTION LAWS.
from attending, the sheriff or under sheriff or other proper officer conduct-
ing such election at the court-house, and the superintendents of any sepa-
rate poll, (if such cause shall exist at any separate poll, for the adjournment
thereof,) may and shall, by request of any one or more of the candidates or
their agents, adjourn the proceeding on the poll until the next day, and so
from day to day, for three days, (Sundays excluded,) giving public notice
thereof by proclamation, at the door of* the court-house or other place of
holding such election, and shall, on the last day of the election, conclude the
poll according to the directions aforesaid; but if the poll to be held at any
such election, is not closed on the first day, the same shall be kept open two
days thereafter.
11. In all cases whatsoever, where by law the sheriff is directed to hold
an election, in case of the death of the said sheriff, or other officer, whose
duty it shall be to conduct such election, or where there shall be no such
officer, the senior magistrate, and in his absence, inability, or incapacity, by
being a candidate, the second, and so in succession to the junior magistrate,
is hereby authorised empowered and required to perform the duties of the
sheriff, prescribed by law in similar cases. And if the mayor of any town,
city or borough, entitled to representation in the general assembly, shall, by
jdeath or any other cause whatever, be unable to attend and conduct the
election according to the provisions of this act, the recorder, or if there be
no recorder, or he be unable to attend, the senior alderman capable of at-
tending, shall attend and conduct such election according to law.
12. On complaint to either house of assembly, of an undue election or re-
turn of any member to their house, which complaint shall be lodged against
such member within ten days after the meeting of the assembly, where the
contested election shall have been held at the stated annual period, or within
thirty days after the day on which the election shall have commenced, (if
it be the election of a delegate,) or within thirty days after the day on which
the last election in the senatorial district shall hare commenced, (if it be the
election of a senator,) where such election shall have been held in conse-
quence of an intermediate vacancy, and such house shall be in session, or if
not in session, within twenty days after the meeting of the general assembly,
such house shall forthwith appoint some day for trying the same, as shortly
as shall be consistent with fair enquiry, whereof notice shall be given by
the speaker to the party against whom the complaint is, if he be absent,
whieh day of trial may be lengthened from time to time, on good cause
shewn to the house, and notice to the absent party. On the day appointed
for the trial, the committee of privileges and elections shall proceed in the
said disputed election, and report to the house of which they are members,
their opinion thereon, before they proceed to any ether business; and the
said house shall, on receipt of the said report, immediately proceed to deter-
mine thereon, and either confirm or disagree to such report, as to them
shall seem just. If any person sworn before the said committee, shall give
or withhold any evidence, under such circumstances as would have consti-
tuted the same to be perjury, if done in the presence of a court of record, the
same shall be deemed perjury. If upon such trial, in the case of a contest-
ed election of a delegate, it shall appear that equal numbers of qualified
electors shall have voted for the petitioner and the sitting member, and the
officer who conducted the election at the court-house of the county, city,
town, or borough, (if it be the election of a delegate from a county, city,
town, or borough,) or a majority of the returning officers of the election district,
(if it be the election of a delegate from an election district,) shall swear, or
VIRGINIA ELECTION LAWS. 519
solemnly affirm, that if such equality had appeared at the election in the
former case, or at thfrtime of their meeting- to make the return in the latter
case, he or they would have declared the petitioner elected, such petitioner
shall be deemed duly elected, and his name, instead of the name of the sitting
member, (which shall be erased,) shall be inserted in the certificate of return.
If upon such trial, in the case of a contested election of a senator, it shall
appear that equal numbers of qualified electors shall have voted for the pe-
titioner and the sitting member, and a majority of the officers who made the
return upon such election, shall swear, or solemnly affirm, that if such equa-
lity had appeared at the time of their meeting to make the said return, they
would have declared the petitioner elected, such petitioner shall be deemed
duly elected, and his name, instead of the name of the sitting member,
(which shall be erased,) shall be inserted in the certificate of return.
13. The officers directed to make certificates of elections as aforesaid,
shall cause them to be delivered, those of delegates, to the clerk of the
house of delegates, and those of senators, to the clerk of the senate, one day
at least before the succeeding session of general assembly.
14. For election of a delegate or senator, when a vacancy shall occur by
death or resignation, during the recess of the general assembly, a writ or
writs shall be issued by the governor: and in all other cases of vacancy,,
such writ or writs shall be issued by the speaker of that house whereof he
was a member; but if the vacancy be occasioned by acceptance of an office,
the writ or writs shall not be issued without the special order of the house.
And the officer or officers to whom such writ or writs shall be directed, so
soon after the receipt thereof as he or they may be able, shall give to the
electors notice thereof, as well as of the lirrje and place of election, by ad-
vertisement to be affixed at four of the most convenient places in the county,
city, town or borough, and shall cause the election to be made in the man-
ner herein before prescribed, and shall have the same power of adjourning
the proceeding upon the poll, as in case of a general election.
15. Any person who shall be a candidate for any county, city, town, bo-
rough, election district or senatorial district, to serve, if elected, in the gene-
ral assembly, who shall, directly or indirectly, give or agree to give, any
elector or pretended elector, money, meat, drink, or other reward,, in order
to be elected, or for having been elected, or who shall treat, directly or indi-
rectly, being a candidate for such or any other county, city, town, borough,
or election district, or senatorial district, upon due proof thereof to either
house, shall be expelled. Provided, nevertheless, That nothing herein con-
tained shall be so construed, as to prevent any candidate from his usual in-
tercourse of friendship with his neighbors at his own house.
16. If any sheriff or other officer conducting an election, shall, directly
or indirectly, so interfere in the election of senatois or delegates, as to shew
partiality for any of the candidates, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of six
hundred and sixty-six dollars sixty-six cents, to be recovered by bill, plaint
or information,, in any court of record, one moiety to the use of the inform-
er, and the other to the use of the commonwealth, for the benefit of the lite-
rary fund.
17. All and every member and members of the general assembly are,
and ought to be and forever shall be, in their persons, servants and estates,
both real and personal, free, exempt and privileged from all arrests, attach-
ments, executions, and all other process whatsoever, save only for treason,
felony, or breach of the peace, during his or their attendance upon the gene-
520 ADDENDA TO THE GAZETTEER.
ral assembly, and one day before and after, for every twenty miles they must
necessarily travel to or from home; and, in the mean time, process in which
they are parties, shall be suspended without abatement or discontinuance;
and, if any person taken in execution, be delivered by privilege of either
house of the general assembly, so soon as such privilege ceaseth, he shall
return himself a prisoner in execution, or be liable to an escape.
i8. Whereas, the freedom of speech and proceedings appertaineth of
right to the general assembly, and the preservation thereof is necessary to
secure the liberty of the people: Be it enacted, That if any per-
son shall arrest or prosecute, or be aiding or abetting in arresting and pro-
secuting a member or members of the senate or house of delegates, for or
on account of any words spoken or written, any proposition made, or pro-
ceedings had in the senate or house of delegates, every such person so of-
fending, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be apprehend-
ed, committed and tried therefor, as in other cases of misdemeanors, before
the general court, or a superior court of law of this commonwealth; and,
being thereof convicted by the verdict of a jury, shall be adjudged to suffer
imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, and shall pay a fine not
exceeding two thousand dollars; which imprisonment and fine shall be as-
sessed by a jury.
19. And if any member or members of the said senate or house of dele-
gates, shall be arrested or imprisoned, for, or on account of any words, spo-
ken or written, or for any proposition made, or proceedings had in the said
senate or house of delegates, such member or members may apply to the
general court, or a superior court of law, or any judge thereof in vacation,
for a writ of habeas corpus, who are hereby empowered and required to
issue the same, returnable before the said court, or said judge, or any other
judge, and, upon the return thereof, to liberate and discharge such member
or members.
20. The provisions of this act shall be extended to the arresting and pro-
secuting any person or persons, for words spoken or written, or for any
propositions made, or proceedings had in the said senate or house of dele-
gates, and to the discharging and liberating any person or persons, by habeas
corpus, as aforesaid, although such person or persons shall, by disqualifica-
tion, or from any other causes, have ceased to be a member of the said
Senate or house of delegates, at the time of such arrest or prosecution, or
'of the trial, judgment, or imprisonment, in consequence thereof: Provided,
That nothing herein contained shall, in any respect, extend to the power
which either house of the general assembly now hath or may exercise over
their respective members
21. Any person intending to contest the election of any other person, as
a senator or delegate from any senatorial district, county, city, town or bo-
rough, or election district, shall, within twenty-fiive days after the day on
which the last election in the former case shall have commenced, or within
fifteen days after the day on which the election (if it be the election, of a
delegate for a county, city, town or borough,) shall have commenced, or
â– vyithin twenty days after the day on which the last election (if it be the elec-
tion of a delegate for an election district,) shall have commenced, give to
the person whose election he intends to contest, notice thereof in writing;
and moreover, shall deliver to him, at the same time, a list of those persons
to whose votes he hath objection, with the objection to each voter written
opposite to his name, stating that the person objected to, is not qualified to
VIRGINIA ELECTION LAWS. 521
vote according to the constitution, or in case of incapacity, ihat he labors
under some express personal disability, according to the provisions thereof,
to exercise the right of suffrage ; and where he hath any other objection
to the legality of the election, or eligibility of the person whose election he
intends to contest as aforesaid, (such objection to the eligibility of such
person, being founded upon his want of all, or any of the qualifications
required by the constitution,) he shall in like manner give notice thereof,
distinguishing his particular objections ; and the person whose election is
contested as aforesaid, shall, within twenty days after receiving such notice,
deliver the like lists on his part.
22. Whensoever the election of any person as a senator or delegate, is
intended to be contested, the petitioner and the returned member shall res-
pectively begin to take their depositions within one month after the delivery
of the notice in writing as aforesaid, given by the petitioner to the returned
member, informing him as aforesaid, of his intention to contest his election ;
and they shall finish taking the same at least thirty days preceding the com-
mencement of the ensuing session of the general assembly. And where
such contest shall arise in consequence of any return made, on any .writ or
writs issued by the governor, or by the speaker of either house of the
general assembly, to supply any vacancy which may have happened, the
party contesting shall give notice in writing to the returned member of his
intention to contest his election, and moreover shall deliver to him a list of
those persons to whose votes he hath objection, with the objection to each
voter written opposite to his name, stating that the person objected to is not
qualified to vote according to the constitution, or in case of incapacity, that
he labors under some express personal disability, according to the provi-
sions thereof, to exercise the right of suffrage ; and if he have any other
objection to the legality of the election, or the eligibility of the member
returned as aforesaid, (such objection to the eligibility of such member
being founded upon his want of all or any of the qualifications required by
the constitution,) he shall in like manner give notice thereof, distinguish-
ing his particular objections, within ten days after the last day on which
votes shall have been taken in the said election; and the member returned
as aforesaid, shall within five days after receiving such notice, deliver the
like lists on his part.
23. Notice in any of the cases before mentioned, as well as the lists left
with his wife or any other free person over the age of twenty-one years,
belonging to his family, other than a negro or mulatto, or in case of their
absence, then at gome public place at the dwelling house, shall be deemed
sufficient. The depositions shall be certified by the commissioners taking