Delaware General Assembly

CHAPTER 22.

OF ELECTIONS.

AN ACT Concerning the Appointment of Electors Of President and Vice President.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

SECTION 1. Any person intending to contest the election of anyone declared by the Governor to have been chosen an elector of President and Vice President of the United States shall, within ten days after such declaration by proclamation of the Governor, give written notice of such intention to the person whose election he intends to contest and also to the Governor; and within five days after the delivery of said notice, shall deliver to the person whose election he contests and to the Governor written specification of the grounds upon which it is intended to contest the said election of the person so declared to have been elected as aforesaid; and if one of the grounds shall be that illegal votes were given at such election for the person declared to have been elected, then such specification shall particularly set forth the name of each alleged illegal voter, with the several objections to the legality of his vote; and shall also distinctly set forth and state the hundred and election district or precinct at which the alleged Illegal vote was cast.

SECTION 2. The person declared to have been elected as aforesaid, shall within ten days after receiving specification of the grounds of contest, deliver to the person so contesting his election, and to the Governor a like specification of objection to the right of the contestant to be declared an elector; and in such specification may also state any other ground upon which he rests the validity of his election.

SECTION 3. Every specification as aforesaid shall be verified by the affidavit of the party delivering the same, stating that he verily believes that the grounds of objection set forth are substantially true; and that the voters specified as illegal voters were not entitled by law to vote at the election in question.

SECTION 4. The notice and specification verified as aforesaid, which shall have been delivered to the Governor, shall be by him delivered to the canvassing board, hereinafter created, together with the certificates of the votes given for each person voted for elector as returned to him by the respective boards of canvass under the election laws of this State, on the first day of the assembling of the canvassing board herein created.

SECTION 5. In the trial of the case of a contested election the parties shall be restricted to the grounds of objections in the specifications set forth; and the statements of the other ground of upon which the person declared to have been elected rests the validity of his election; and shall not examine into the illegality of any other voter other than those specified as illegal, nor impeach such votes for any causes other than those so specified as aforesaid.

SECTION 6. Where any contestant or person who has been declared elected, and whose election is contested, is desirous of obtaining testimony respecting a contested election, he may apply to the Prothonotary of the Superior Court of the State of Delaware, in and for Kent county, for a subpoena or subpoenas for summoning such witnesses as he may wish to appear before the Board of Canvass at such time as shall be in the subpoenas designated. Such subpoena shall be directed to the Sheriff of the county in which the witness or witnesses reside, and shall be served in the same manner as subpoena for witnesses in civil cases are served. The Sheriff to whom a subpoena may be directed shall make return of his service thereon to the said Board of Canvass on the first day of its meeting to hear the contest.

SECTION 7. The Superior Court of the State of Delaware, in and for Kent County, is hereby created and declared to be a Board of Canvass to hear and determine all contests of elections of electors of President and Vice President, with power to regulate and determine the mode of procedure, and all other matter pertaining thereto as may be necessary in carrying out the provision of this act and the act of Congress fixing the day of the meeting of electors, passed February 3, A. D., 1887; and it shall be the duty of the Governor whenever a notice of contest is served upon him immediately to make proclamation convening said Superior Court in special session at the Court House in Dover, on a day to be by him named, which shall not be later than the twentieth day of December, next succeeding the day of the election in the year in which the election was held.

SECTION 8. The said Superior Court, after having any contest of election of an elector or electors, shall make out and certify under the seal of the court the ascertainment of the vote of the State for electors, and also certify the names of the person chosen as electors, and cause said ascertainment and certificate, together with all the papers and certificates filed in the case, to be delivered to the Governor on or before the first day of January next succeeding the day of the election at which electors were chosen.

Passed at Dover, April 21, 1887.