not more than two watchers to attend each polling place thereof. Such committee, chairman or secretary thereof for a city, county, town or village shall not appoint watchers for any polling place outside of such city, county, town or village, respectively. Each watcher must be a qualified elector of the county in which the election district for which he is appointed a watcher shall be located, provided that women who are citizens and residents of the county, and of the age of twenty-one years, may act as watchers, with full rights and privileges of such office, at any election whenever held at which a woman suffrage constitutional amendment is submitted to the voters except that but one woman watcher for, and one woman watcher opposed to, the adoption of such amendment shall be permitted in each election district. Such watchers may be present at such polling place and within the guard-rail from at least fifteen minutes before the unlocking and examination of any ballot box at the opening of the polls of such election until after the announcement of the result of the canvass of the votes cast thereat and the signing of the returns of the canvass by the inspectors.

A reasonable number of challengers, at least one person of each such party or independent body, shall be permitted to remain just outside of the guard-rail of each such polling place, where they can plainly see what is done within such rail outside of the voting booths, from the opening to the close of the polls thereat. Each challenger must be a qualified elector of the county in which the election district for which he is appointed a challenger is located.

No person shall, while the polls are open at any polling place, do any electioneering within such polling place or within one hundred feet therefrom in any public street or in any building or room, or in a public manner, and no political banner, poster or placard shall be allowed in or upon such polling place during any day of registration or of the election. [As amended by chap. 428, Laws of 1910, chap. 649, Laws of 1911, chap. 821, Laws of 1913, and chap. 242, Laws of 1914.]

§ 353. General duties of inspectors. One of the inspectors of election at each polling place shall be designated by the board of inspectors of election to receive the ballots from the voters voting; or if a majority of the inspectors shall not agree in such designation, they shall draw lots for such position. If it be an election for which voters are required to be registered, the other inspectors shall, before any ballots are delivered by the ballot clerks to a voter, ascertain whether he is duly registered.

The ballot clerks shall not deliver any ballot to such voter until the inspectors announce that he is so registered. As each voter rotes, the inspectors shall check his name upon such register and shall enter therein in the column provided therefor opposite the name of such voter, the consecutive number upon the stub of the ballot or set of ballots voted by him. The inspector shall forthwith upon detaching the stub from any official ballot deposit the same in the box provided for detached stubs.

§ 354. General duties of ballot clerks. Ballot clerks shall fold and deliver the ballots to voters. Ballots shall be delivered in numerical order beginning with number one. When the ballots are in sets they shall only be delivered in sets. If a ballot is found to be defective or mutilated before it is delivered to the voter, its stub and the stubs of all other ballots in the set shall immediately be detached and placed in the box for stubs, and all the ballots of that set shall immediately be marked "canceled" and placed in the box for spoiled and mutilated ballots. If a voter returns a ballot as defective, mutilated, defaced, or wrongly marked, he shall also return all the other ballots of the set, if any, and the ballot clerks shall likewise remove their stubs, placing all the stubs in the box for stubs and all the ballots of the set in the box for spoiled or mutilated ballots, first marking the ballots "cancelled." cancelled." In each case the voter shall receive another ballot, or set of ballots, unless not entitled thereto under section three hundred and fifty-eight.

Upon each delivery of official ballots, the ballot clerks shall announce the voter's name and the number on the stub, and they shall make a similar announcement when any ballot is returned to them.

The ballot clerks shall keep a record of all ballots deposited in the box for spoiled and mutilated ballots. [As amended by chap. 821, Laws of 1913.]

§ 355. General duties of poll clerks. 1. Poll clerks shall keep a record of the persons voting or offering to vote, and tally the votes during the canvass thereof.

2. Each poll clerk at each polling place for which official ballots are required to be provided shall have a poll-book for keeping the list of electors voting or offering to vote thereat at the election. Such book shall have eight columns headed respectively: "Number of elector," "Names of electors," "Resi

dence of electors," "Signature or statement number of elector," "Signatures compared by inspector," "Number on ballots de livered to electors," "Number on ballots voted," and "Remarks;" provided, however, that the columns for "Signature or statement number of elector" and "Signatures compared by the inspector," when the poll-book is prepared for use in an election district, wholly outside of a city or village having five thousand inhabitants or more, may in the discretion of the board or officer supplying such books be omitted therefrom. Previous to each delivery of an official ballot or set of official ballots by the ballot clerk to an elector, each poll clerk shall enter upon his poll-book in the appropriate column the number of the elector, in the successive order of the delivery of ballots to electors, the name of the elector in the alphabetical order of the first letter of his surname, his residence by street and number or if he has no street number, a brief description of the locality thereof. The column headed " Signature or statement number of elector," shall have printed above each horizontal line the words "the foregoing statements are true," and any elector whose registration was required to be personal shall, previous to the receipt of an official ballot, sign his name by his own hand and without assistance, using an indelible pencil or ink, below the said words in the poll-book kept by the poll clerk who shall be designated by the chairman of the board of inspectors. No such signature shall be required of an elector whose registration was not required to be personal.

After an elector, whose registration was required to be personal, shall have so signed, and before an official ballot shall be given to him, one of the inspectors other than the inspector who receives the ballots from the electors shall compare the sig nature made in the poll-book with the signature theretofore made by the elector in the registration book on registration day, and if said signature is the same, or sufficiently similar to the signature written on registration day, as to identify it as being written by the same person who wrote the signature on registration day, said inspector shall thereupon certify that fact by writing his initials after such signature, in the column headed "Signatures compared by inspector." The inspector who shall so certify shall be chosen by lot by the board previous to the opening of the polls on election day, and if said inspector so chosen shall absent himself during the day, the board of inspectors shall fill his place by choosing by lot from the inspectors present another of the inspec

tors other than the inspector who receives the ballots from the electors.

If, on registration day, an elector whose registration was required to be personal had alleged his inability to so sign, then one of the poll clerks designated by the chairman of the board of inspectors shall read the same list of questions to the elector as were required to be read on registration days from a book to be provided for election day, and to be known as "identification statements for election day," and said poll clerk shall write the answers of the elector thereto. Each of these statements shall be numbered and a number corresponding to the number on the statement sheet shall be entered in the fourth column opposite the name of such elector answering the questions. The questions answered on registration day by the elector shall not be turned to or inspected until all the answers to said questions shall have been written down on election day by the poll clerk. Any person who shall prompt an elector in answering any questions provided in this subdivision shall be guilty of a felony.

At the bottom of each such list of questions shall be printed the following statement: "I certify that I have read to the above named elector each of the foregoing questions and that I have duly recorded his answers as above to each of said questions," and said poll clerk who has made the above record shall sign his name to said certificate and date the same, and note the time of day of making such record.

The comparison of the signature of an elector made on registration and election days, and a comparison of the answers made by an elector on registration and election days, shall be had in full view of the watchers, and the right to challenge electors shall exist until the ballot shall have been deposited in the ballot box. If the signature of the elector or the answers to the questions made by the elector do not correspond, then it shall be the privilege of the watchers and challengers to challenge and the duty of each inspector to challenge, unless some other authorized person shall challenge.

Each poll clerk in every election district of the state shall enter upon his poll-book in the appropriate column the printed number upon the stub of the ballots delivered to each elector, and the number on the ballots voted by him. If the ballot or set of ballots delivered to any elector shall be returned by him to the ballot clerk, and he shall obtain a new ballot or set of ballots, the poll clerk shall write opposite his name on the poll-books, in the

proper column, the printed number on the stub of such ballot or additional set of ballots. Each poll clerk shall make a memorandum upon his poll-book opposite the name of each person who shall have been challenged and taken either of the oaths prescribed upon such challenge, or who shall have received assistance in preparing his ballot and shall also enter upon the poll-book opposite the name of such person the names of the election officers or persons who render such assistance, and the cause or reason for such assistance by the elector assisted. As each elector offers his ballot or set of ballots which he intends to vote to the inspector, each poll clerk shall report to the inspector whether the number entered on the poll-book kept by him as the number on the ballot or set of ballots last delivered to such elector is the same as the number on the stub of the ballot or set of ballots so offered. As each elector votes, each poll clerk shall enter in the proper column on his poll-book the number on the detached stub of the ballots voted. [As amended by chap. 428, Laws of 1910, chap. 649, Laws of 1911, chap. 821, Laws of 1913, and chap. 537, Laws of 1916.]

§ 356. Delivery of ballots to voters. While the polls of the election are open, the voters entitled to vote and who have not previously voted thereat, may enter within the guard-rail at the polling place of such election for the purpose of voting, in such order that there shall not at any time be within such guard-rail more than twice as many voters as there are voting booths thereat, in addition to the persons lawfully within such guard-rail for other purposes than voting. The voter shall enter within the guard-rail through the entrance provided, and shall forthwith proceed to the inspectors and give his name, and, if in a city or village of five thousand inhabitants or over, his residence by street and number, or if it have no street number, a brief description of the locality thereof, and if required by the inspectors shall state whether he is over or under twenty-one years of age. One of the inspectors shall thereupon announce the name and residence of the voter in a loud and distinct tone of voice. No persons shall be allowed to vote in any election district at any election where voters are required to be registered unless his name shall be upon the registration books of such election district.

The right of any person to vote whose name is on such register shall be subject to challenge. If such voter is entitled to vote thereat and is not challenged, or if challenged and the challenge be decided in his favor, one of the ballot