fail to identify himself, he shall not be permitted to vote; but if he be qualified he shall surrender his certificate and the judges shall enter his name on the lists and he shall be entitled to vote.

SEC. 12. Before entering upon the duties prescribed in this act, the registry agents shall severally take and subscribe before an officer duly authorized to administer oaths, the following oath or affirmation, which shall be filed in the office of the county clerk, of their respective counties, to wit.: I,. . . . registry agent for election district No.... in the county of Montana, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will perform all the duties of registry agent, in and for said election district according to law and the best of my ability, and that in the discharge of my duties as such registry agent I will honestly endeavor to prevent fraud, deceit or any other manner of abuse of the elective franchise, so help me God (or under the pains and penalties of perjury).

SEC. 13. The several registry agents shall be entitled to receive as full compensation for all services rendered by them under the provisions of this act, such sums as may be allowed by the county commissioners, and such compensation may be a per capita of twenty-five cents for each and every qualified elector registered in each electoral year, or it may be a per diem not to exceed five dollars; in no event shall a registry agent receive more than at the rate of five dollars per day, whether the basis of his compensation be a per capita or otherwise, which shall be valid claims against their respective counties, and their accounts shall be made out so as to clearly show the number of names by them severally registered during that electoral year, and sworn to and filed with the board of county commissioners of their respective counties, and said claims, together with all other just and reasonable demands of other persons for books, advertising and printing, necessarily incurred in carrying out the requirements of this act, shall be audited and paid out of the general funds of the several counties as other county charges.

SEC. 14. No person shall be entitled to vote at any election mentioned in this act. except as o herwise provided in this act, unless his name shall on the day of election appear in the "check lists" or copies of the official register furnished by the registry agents to the judges of election, of the election precinct at which he offers to vote, or unless he produces and surrenders a county registry certificate or a territorial or state registry certificate as provided in sections two and eleven of this act, and the fact that his name so appears in the "check lists" and in the copy of the officia! register in the possession of the judges of election shall be prima facie evidence of his right to vote; Provided, That when the judges of election shall have good reason to believe, or when they shall be informed by a qualified elector, that the person offering to

vote is not the person who was so registered in that name, the vote of such person shall not be received until he shall have proved his identity as the person who was registered in that name.

SEC. 15. Any person who shall vote or offer to vote at any election mentioned in this act, but who shall not be a qualified elector, or any person who, being a qualified elector, shall vote in the name of any other registered elector, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than three years, and any person who shall wilfully cause or endeavor to cause his name to be registered in any other election district than that in which he resides, except as herein otherwise provided, or will reside prior to the day of the next ensuing election; and any person who shall cause or endeavor to cause his name to be registered, knowing that he is not a qualified elector, or will not be a qualified elector on or before the day of the next ensuing election, in the election district in which he causes or endeavors to cause such registry to be made, and any other person who shall induce, aid or abet any such person in the commission of either of such acts in this section enumerated and described, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, or by confinement in the county jail for not less than one month nor more than six month, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 16. All wilfull, corrupt and false swearing or affirming before any registry agent, shall be deemed perjury and on conviction shall be punished as such, If any registry agent, or any other person in any manner concerned shall wilfully and corruptly permit any person not entitled to registration or to a certificate of registration, to be registered or have a certificate of registration, or who delays or fails to deliverthe certified copies of the official register and the "check list” to the judges of election as required by this act, or who permits any person to register after the date on which the registration books close, or who shall otherwise wilfully and corruptly violate any of the provisions of this act, the penalty for which is not herein specially prescribed, he shall be punished for each and every offense whereof he shall be duly convicted by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not less than one year nor more than five years, or by a fine not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 17. For the purpose of enabling the several boards of county commissioners of the counties of Montana to carry out the provisions of this act and create election districts, appoint registry agents and do such other and proper acts to fully comply with the intent hereof, it shall be lawful for said boards at their regular

meetings to convene on the first Monday of June, 1889, to sit in regular session two days in addition to the five days, now by law allowed to them for session, and in order to secure uniform action in all the counties, the commissioners are hereby required to set apart Wednesday and Thursday, the fifth and sixth days of June, 1889, for action under the provisions of this law, on which days they shall perform all acts necessary and proper and requisite herein to be done, and the county attorneys of the several counties are hereby required to be present on such days and advise and assist said boards in proceedings under this law.

SEC. 18. In order to carry into full force and effect the provisions of this act and to provide for the registration of voters for the election of state officers and other purposes, to be held within Montana territory on the first Tuesday of October, 1889, pursuant to the terms of an act of Congress relating to the admission of Montana and other territories approved February 22d, 1889, and to permit and require the registration of voters prior to, and for the purposes of such election, the registry agents to be appointed in June, 1889, or the successors to such registry agents shall enter upon their duties not later than August 1st, 1889; and they shall at any time they may be called upon to do so, at their offices, between the hours of two p. m. and eight p. m. on all legal days from and after the fifteenth day of August, 1889, to the fifth day of September, 1889, and between the hours of ten a. m. and ten p. m. from the fifth day of September to and including the fifteenth day of September, 1889, previous to such election, receive and register the names of all persons legally qualified and entitled to vote at such election, according to the provisions of the act of congress hereinbefore cited and the provisions of this act, and the law under. which such election may be held. The registry agents shall publish notices as to when registration will close for twenty days before the expiration of the time provided for registration prior to such election, as is provided for in section five of this act; and they shall within seven days after the registration of electors is closed, that is to say within seven days after the fifteenth day of September, 1889, prepare and cause to be written or printed the lists of names registered by them in the manner and way prescribed by section nine of this act. They shall also give notice in the list of voters prepared as herein provided, that they will receive objections to the right to vote on the part of any person registered, until six o'clock p. m. on the seventh day previous to the first Tuesday of October, 1889, in the manner generally provided for in section nine of this act, and no person shali be permitted to vote at such election unless registered or possessed of a registry certificate as by the terms and provisions of this act required. Registry agents shall forward the verified copies of such lists of voters to the county clerk and shall make up their copies of official registers and check lists and deliver the same with affidavits and certified

certificates and all other papers required by this act to be delivered to the judges of election and shall do any and all other acts requisite and necessary to be done in the manner generally prescribed by this act, and they shall be governed hereby. All returns of such elections shall be made out and canvassed and certified to according to the election laws of Montana then in force, and abstracts of votes shall be made and certificates issued accordingly.

SEC. 19. It is hereby made the duty of the county commissioners and county clerks of the several counties in Montana to cause to be made full and minute entries of all proceedings had under this act, and to cause full copies of such proceedings and appointments of registry agents, judges, etc., to be published in a newspaper published within their respective counties as soon after their adjournment as is practible, and it is hereby made the duty of the county clerks of the several counties to immediately notify in writing the registry agents of their appointment.

SEC. 20. Sections 1020 and 1021, fifth division, Compiled Statutes, Montana, and all acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed; Provided, Nothing in this act contained shall be construed to affect the laws regulating the registration of voters in municipal elections as provided for by the municipal incorporation laws of Montana, and by an act entitled "An act concerning the registration of voters in incorporated cities," approved March 10th, 1887, or to affect or repeal the laws in force regulating the election of school trustees as provided for by section 1880, fifth division, Compiled Statutes of Montana.

SEC. 21. This act shall take effect March 15th, 1889.
Approved, March 8, 1889.

ELECTIONS-BALLOTS AND VOTING.

AN ACT to provide for printing and distributing ballots at the public expense, and to regulate voting at territorial and other elections.

Be it enacted by the legislative assembly of the territory of Mon

tana:

SECTION I. All ballots cast in elections for public officers within Montana, (except school district officers) shall be printed and distributed at public expense as hereinafter provided. The printing of ballots and cards of instruction for the electors in each county, and the delivery of the same to the election officers, as hereinafter provided, shall be a county charge, the payment of which shall be provided for in the same manner as the payment of other county expenses, but the expense of printing and delivering the ballots shall in the case of municipal elections be a charge upon the city or town in which such election shall be held.

SEC. 2. Any convention or primary meeting, as hereinafter defined, held for the purpose of making nominations to public office, and also electors to the number hereinafter specified, may nominate candidates for public office to be filled by election within the terri

tory. A convention or primary meeting within the meaning of this act, is an organized assemblage of electors or delegates representing a political party or principle.

SEC. 3. All nominations made by such convention or primary meeting shall be certified as follows: The certificate of nomination, which shall be in writing, shall contain the name of each person nominated, his residence, his business, his business address, and the office for which he is named, and shall designate in not more than five words, the party or principal which such convention or primary meeting represents, and it shall be signed by the presiding officer and secretary of such convention or primary meeting who shall add to their signatures, their respective places of residence, their business and business addresses. Such certificates made out as herein required shall be delivered by the secretary or president of such convention or primary meeting, to the secretary of the territory or to the county clerk as hereinafter required.

SEC. 4. Certificates of nomination of candidates for offices to be filled by the electors of the entire territory, or of any division or district greater than a county, shall be filed with the secretary of the territory. Certificates of nomination for county and precinct officers shall be filed with the clerks of the respective counties wherein the officers are to be elected. Certificates of nomination for municipal offices shall be filed with the clerks of the respective municipal corporation wherein the officers are to be elected. The certificate of a nomination for joint member of either branch of the legislative assembly shall be filed in the offices of the county clerks of both counties to be represented by such joint member. SEC. 5. Candidates for public office may be nominated otherwise than by convention or primary meeting in the manner following: A certificate of nomination containing the name of a candidate for the office to be filled, with such information as is required to be given in certificates provided for in section three of this act, shall be signed by electors residing within the district or political division in and for which the officer or officers are to be elected in the following numbers: The number of signatures need not exceed one hundred when the nomination is for an office to be filled by the electors of the entire territory, and need not exceed ten when the election is for an office to be filled by the electors of a county, district or other division less than the territory, and need not exceed five when the nomination is for an office to be filled by the electors of a township, precinct or ward: Provided, That the said signatures need not all be appended to one paper. Each elector signing a certificate shall add to his signature his place of residence, his business and his business address. Such certificate may be filed as provided for in section four of this act, in the same manner and with the same effect as a certificate of nomination made by a party convention or primary meeting.

SEC. 6. No certificate of nomination shall contain the name of