AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 170, VOLUME 43, LAWS OF DELAWARE, 1941, ENTITLED "AN ACT TO REINCORPORATE THE TOWN OF LEWES" WITH REFERENCE TO TILE ANNUAL ELECTION AND TO THE QUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met (two-thirds of all the members elected to each branch thereof concurring therein):
Section 1. That Chapter 170, Volume 43, Laws of Delaware, 1941, be and the same is hereby amended by striking out all of paragraph five (5) of Section 3 thereof, and substituting in lieu thereof the following:
The votes at said annual election shall be received by a judge selected by the Commissioners of the town at least two weeks before the said election, and the result of the balloting shall be ascertained by himself as judge of the election, but the failure of the Commissioners to select such a judge shall not prevent the citizens of the town from doing so by viva voce vote when the time arrives to open the polls. The judge shall have the power to select two citizens of the town as clerks to assist him in holding said election.
At such election every person, male or female, above the age of twenty-one years who shall have been a freeholder in the town of Lewes, Delaware, for a period of three months immediately preceding such election, whether a full time resident or only a summer resident of said town, shall have one vote and also every person, male or female, above the age of twenty-one years who shall have been a resident of the State of Delaware, at least one year and a bona fide resident within the corporate limits of the town of Lewes, Delaware, for at least three months immediately preceding any such election, shall have one vote. All votes shall be offered in person, and provided further, that every person, male or female, before he or she has the right to
vote at such annual election must have his or her name entered on the registers of the "Books of Registered Voters" of the town of Lewes, Delaware.
That after the passage of this act the present Mayor and Commissioners and their successors in office shall each year provide two registers to be known as the "Books of Registered Voters" in and for the town of Lewes, and said "Books of Registered Voters" are to be kept in the Mayor's office in said town under the custody of the Receiver of Taxes for the said town. Any elector desiring to register, may, from the first week-day in March until the last week-day in September (Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays excluded) during the office hours in which said office is open to the public go to said office and have his or her name name recorded in the "Books of Registered Voters," provided, he or she has the necessary qualifications to become registered. The qualifications are as follows:
Every elector, whether male or female, must be above the age of twenty-one years, and if a freeholder in said town has his or her deed duly recorded in the proper office for such recording; and if said elector is not a freeholder in said town, he or she shall have been a resident of the State of Delaware at least one year and a bona fide resident within the corporate limits of the town of Lewes for at least three months.
The Judge of the election shall decide upon the eligibility of any elector under this act to cast a ballot. Immediately after the election is closed, the votes shall be read and counted in public, and the person having the plurality of votes shall be declared elected. In the event that two candidates for the same office shall receive the same number of votes, the judge of the election shall determine the winner or winners by lot. Immediately after such election, the judge of the election shall enter in a book to be provided for that purpose a minute of such election, containing the names of the persons elected, and shall immediately give to the officers elected certificates of their election. The book containing such minutes shall be preserved by the Commissioners, and shall be evidence in all courts of law and equity in this State.