§ 418. When ballot clerks not to be elected. Ballot clerks shall not be elected or appointed for any district for which a voting machine shall have been adopted, and which will be supplied and ready for use at the next election to be held therein. § 419. Number of voters in election districts. For any election in any city, town or village in which voting machines are to be used, the election districts in which such machines are to be used may be created by the officers charged with the duty of creating election districts, so as to contain as near as may be four hundred and fifty voters each. Such redistricting or redivision may be made at any time after any November election and on or before August fifteenth following, to take effect on the sixth Wednesday before the next general election. Where such redistricting or redivision shall be made in any town, the board making the same shall, on or before September first following, appoint from the inspectors of election then in office (if sufficient therefor are then in office, and, if not, from persons not in office, sufficient to make up the requisite number), to take effect on or before the first day of registration thereafter and not earlier than the second Wednesday following the next fall primary, four inspectors of election for each election district thus created, who shall be equally divided between the two parties entitled to representation on said boards of inspectors. Thereafter no redivision of such election district shall be made for elections by such machines until at some general election the number of votes cast in one or more of such districts shall exceed five hundred. But the town board of a town in which such machines are used may alter the boundaries of the election districts at any time after a general election and on or before August fifteenth following, to take effect on the sixth Wednesday before the next general election, provided that the number of such election districts in such town shall not be increased or reduced, and the number of votes to be cast in any district whose boundaries are so altered shall not exceed five hundred. If the creation, division or alteration of an election district is rendered necessary by the creation, division or alteration of a town, ward or city or rendered necessary or occasioned by the division of a county into assembly districts after a reapportionment by the legislature or members of assembly, such creation, division or alteration of an election district shall be made and shall take effect immediately; and inspectors of election for the new election districts, as so created, divided or altered, shall be appointed, in the manner provided by law, a reasonable time before the next official primary or meeting for registration and such appointments shall take effect immediately. [As amended by chap. 244, Laws of 1914, and chap. 537, Laws of 1916.] $ 420. Definitions. The list of candidates used or to be used on the front of the voting machine shall be deemed official ballots under this chapter for an election district in which a voting machine is used pursuant to law. The word "ballot " as used in this article, (except when reference is made to irregular ballots) means that portion of the cardboard or paper or other material within the ballot frames containing the name of the candidate and the emblem of the party organization by which he was nominated, or a statement of a proposed constitutional amendment, or other question or proposition with the word "Yes" for voting for any question or the word "No" for voting against any question. The term The term "question question" shall mean any constitutional amendment, proposition, or other question submitted to the voters at any election. The term "ballot label" shall mean the printed strips of cardboard containing the names of the candidates nominated, and the questions submitted. The term irregular ballot" shall mean a vote cast, by or on a special device, for a person whose name does not appear on the ballot labels. The term " voting machine custodian" shall mean the person who shall have charge of preparing and arranging the voting machine for elections. The term "protective counter" shall mean a separate counter built into the voting machine which cannot be reset, which records the total number of movements of the operating lever. [As amended by chap. 821, Laws of 1913.] § 421. Saving clause. Nothing herein shall be deemed to prohibit the adoption or use of any voting machine at any election within any town, city or village that has adopted the same prior to the tenth day of December, nineteen hundred and thirteen, if the mechanism is or may be made adjustable to conform to the grouping of candidates under the title of the office, but the method of conducting an election therewith shall be in the manner prescribed by this chapter. [As amended by chap. 821, Laws of 1913.] 1 ARTICLE 12 Boards of Canvassers Section 430. Organization of county board of canvassers. 431. Production of returns and tally sheets. 432. Correction of clerical errors in election district statements. 433. Mandamus to county or state boards of canvassers to correct errors. 434. Proceedings of state board of canvassers upon corrected statements of county boards. 435. Mandamus to state board to canvass corrected statements of county boards. 436. Proceedings upon corrected statements. 437. Statements of canvass by county boards; preservation of protested. void and wholly blank ballots. 438. Decisions of county boards as to persons elected. 439. Transmission of statements of county boards to secretary of state and board of elections. 440. Organization and duties of board of canvassers of 441. Organization of state board of canvassers. 443. Certificates of election. 444. Record in office of secretary of state of county officers elected. § 430. Organization of county board of canvassers. The board of supervisors of each county shall be the county board of canvassers of such county. The county board of canvassers of each county within the city of New York shall consist of the members of the board of aldermen of the city of New York elected as such within the county. The said county boards of canvassers shall also within their respective counties be the city board of canvassers of such city. The county board of canvassers of a county containing a city or cities shall be the city board of canvassers of such city or cities, except that the board of aldermen of the city of Buffalo shall be the city board of canvassers for such city. The county board of canvassers of 'As renumbered by chap. 800, Laws of 1913. canvassers. In the respective counties shall meet on the Tuesday next after each election of public officers held in such county other than an election of town, city, village or district school officers held at a different time from a general election. The board of county canvassers shall meet at the usual place of meeting of the board of supervisors, except that in a county wholly included in the city of New York such board of county canvassers shall meet at the office of the county clerk. Upon such meeting they shall choose one of their number chairman of such board. In a county having a single commissioner of elections, instead of a board of elections, such commissioner shall be the secretary of the board of county In a county wholly included within the limits of the city of New York and in a county, if any, in which the general powers and duties of a county board of elections is devolved upon the county clerk by this chapter, the county clerk, or if he be absent or unable to act, a deputy county clerk designated by the clerk, shall be secretary of the board of county canvassers. every other county of the state the president of the board of elections shall be the secretary of the board of county canvassers, or if he be absent or unable to act, the secretary of such board shall be the secretary of the board of county canvassers. When a chairman of the board of county canvassers shall have been chosen, as above provided, the secretary of such board shall thereupon administer the constitutional oath of office to the chairman, who shall then administer such oath to each member, and to the secretary of the board. A majority of the members of any board of canvassers shall constitute a quorum thereof. If, on the day fixed for such meeting, a majority of any such board shall not attend, the members of the board then present shall elect the chairman of the board and adjourn to some convenient hour of the next day. If such board, or a majority thereof, shall fail or neglect to meet within two days after the time fixed for organizing such board, the supreme court, or any justice thereof, or county judge within such county, may compel the members thereof by writ of mandamus to meet and organize forthwith. [As amended by chap. 432, Laws of 1910, and chap. 537, Laws of 1916.] § 431. Production of returns and tally sheets. As soon as such board of county canvassers shall have been organized, the officer with whom they were filed shall deliver to such board of canvassers all the returns with tally sheets annexed containing the original statements of canvass received from inspectors of election for districts within the county for which said board are county or city canvassers. The original statements which have been delivered to members of the board of canvassers shall then be delivered to the board. If any member of the county board of canvassers shall be unable to attend the first meeting of such board, he shall, at or before such meeting, cause to be delivered to the secretary of such board any original statement that may have come into his possession. If, at the first meeting of a county board of canvassers of any county, all returns with tally sheets annexed so required to be produced shall not be produced before the board, it shall adjourn to some convenient hour of the same or the next day, and the secretary of such board shall, by special messenger or otherwise, obtain such missing returns, if possible, otherwise he shall procure the other set of returns with tally sheets annexed, or, failing that, the third set of returns without tally sheets, in time to be produced before such board at its next meeting. At such first meeting, or as soon as an original statement of the result of the canvass of the votes cast at such election in every election district of the county shall be produced before such board, the board shall proceed to canvass the votes cast in such county at such election. [As amended by chap. 821, Laws of 1913, and chap. 537, Laws of 1916.] § 432. Correction of clerical errors in election district statements. If, upon proceeding to canvass such votes, it shall clearly appear to any county board of canvassers that certain matters are omitted from any such statement which should have been inserted, or that any merely clerical mistakes exist therein, they shall have power, and such power is hereby given, to summon the election officers whose names are subscribed thereto before such board, and such election officers shall forthwith meet and make such correction as the facts of the case require; but such election officers shall not change or alter any decision before made by them, but shall only cause their canvass to be correctly stated. The board of county canvassers may adjourn from day to day not exceeding three days in all, for the purpose of obtaining and receiving such corrected statements. [As amended by chap. 821, Laws of 1913.] § 433. Mandamus to county or state boards of canvassers to correct errors. The supreme court may, upon affidavit presented by any voter, showing that errors have occurred in any statement or determination made by the state board of canvassers, or by any board of county canvassers, or that any such |