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Preamble. WHEREAS an act of congress was passed February twenty-six, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, entitled "An act to authorize the people of the territory of Minnesota to form a constitution and state government preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states; " and whereas the people of said territory did, on the twentyninth day of August, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, by delegates elected for that purpose, form for themselves a constitution and state government, which is republican in form, and was ratified and adopted by the people at an election held on the thirteenth day of October, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, for that purpose; therefore

Minnesota admitted. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, That the state of Minnesota shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever.

SEC. 2. Shall have two representatives. And be it further enacted, That said state shall be entitled to two representatives in congress until the next apportionment of representatives amongst the several states.

SEC. 3. Laws of the United States extended over it—made a judicial district, etc. And be it further enacted, That from and after the admission of the state of Minnesota, as herein before provided, all the laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable shall have the same force and effect within that state as in other states of the Union; and the said state is hereby constituted a judicial district of the United States, within which a district court, with the like powers and jurisdiction as the district court of the United States for the district of Iowa, shall be established: the judge, attorney and marshal of the United States for the said district of Minnesota shall reside within the same, and shall be entitled to the same compensation as the judge, attorney and marshal of the district of Iowa; and in all cases of appeal or writ of error heretofore prosecuted and now pending in the supreme court of the United States, upon any record from the supreme court of Minnesota territory, the mandate of execution or order of further proceedings shall be directed by the supreme court of the United States to the district court of the United States for the district of Minnesota, or to the supreme court of the state of Minnesota, as the nature of such appeal or writ of error may require; and each of those courts shall be the successor of the supreme court of Minnesota territory, as to all such cases, with full power to hear and determine the same, and to award mesne or final process therein.

GENERAL

STATUTES OF MINNESOTA.

SECTION.

CHAPTER I.

ELECTIONS.

1-6. Annual election-districts--appointment

SECTION.

48. Plurality to elect.

and duties of judges and cle.ks-notice of 49-55. Contested elections. holding.

7-10. Posting constitutional amendments. 11-16. Voting, how conducted.

17-22. Canvass by judges-their duties as to ballots, poll-lists and returns-what ballots void.

23-25. County canvassing board-auditor to send abstracts to secretary of state.

26. State canvassing board-certificates of elec

tion.

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56. Secretary to provide blanks.
57. Fees for abstracts.

58. Qualification of voters.
59-67. Offences against the election law.
68-72. Challenges.

73-74. Fraud and perjury, how punished.
75. Fines to go to use of schools.
76. Chapter applies to all elections.
ELECTIONS IN CITIES OF OVER 12,000 INHABI-

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§ 1. Annual election. On the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, in each year, an election shall be held in the several election districts of the state, which shall be known as the annual election. And the several state and county officers, judges of the supreme and district courts, members of the legislature and representatives in the congress of the United States, shall be elected at the annual election next preceding the expiration of the term of each of the said officers respectively; and on the year when a president and vice-president of the United States are to be chosen, a number of electors of president and vice-president of the United States, equal to the number of senators and representatives to which this state is entitled in the congress of the United States, shall be elected at said election.

§ 2. Election districts-Judges and clerks-Voting places. Every organized township and every ward of an incorporated city is an election district. The township supervisors of each township are the judges of election, and the town clerk of each township shall act as one of the clerks of election in their respective election districts, and the judges shall appoint an additional clerk of election, who shall be of an opposite party, if practicable, to the town clerk. The city council of each incorporated city shall appoint three qualified electors of each election district of said city, who shall be the judges of election in their election districts respectively, and who shall appoint two qualified electors of their election districts as clerks of election: provided, that in the cities of Saint Paul and

Rochester, the aldermen in each ward shall be the judges of election in their respective election districts, and shall appoint two qualified electors of each ward respectively, who shall be the clerks of election. The election shall be held in each election district, at the place where the last preceding town meeting or ward election was held; but if a vote is taken to hold it elsewhere, the election shall be held at the place designated: provided, the city council of any incorporated city may, by ordinance, incorporate any two adjoining wards into one election district, and appoint the place of holding the election in such district; and in any township having over five hundred electors, the supervisors may divide the same into two election districts and designate the boundaries thereof, and thereafter there shall be elected at the annual town meeting of such township, three judges of election, and two clerks of election in each district; and the place of holding election in each district shall be designated by said town meeting, or, in default of such designation, shall be appointed for each district by the judges of election thereof: provided, that whenever any number of voters not less than ten (10), residing in an [unorganized] organized or partially organized county, shall petition the governor to establish a new election district, designating the boundaries of the same, which shall not be within ten (10) miles of the polling place of any existing district, it shall be the duty of the governor, and he is hereby authorized, to cause to be established such district; and he shall designate from the names of the petitioners, three (3) persons who shall be judges of election therein; such districts to be established at such place or places as the petitioners may require. The governor shall, within six (6) weeks of every general and three (3) weeks of every special election, publish in some newspaper printed in the state a list of all the election districts by him so established, and the places where the elections are to be held. (As amended 1877, c. 9.)

§ 3. Ballot-Boxes. The supervisors of the several townships, and the city council of the several cities, shall procure, at the expense of the said townships and cities respectively, a ballot-box for each election district destitute of the same, which box shall be provided with a lock and key, and have an opening through the lid, of sufficient size to admit a single folded ballot and no more; and the said box shall be kept by the town clerk of each township, and by the city clerk of each city, for the use of the judges of election in the said election districts respectively.

$4. Notice of election. Each township and city clerk, fifteen days at least before the holding of any general election, and ten days at least before the holding of any special election, shall give public notice of the time and place of holding such election, by posting, in three public places in each election district, three notices containing a list of the officers to be elected at such election, one of which notices shall be posted up at the place of holding the election; the said notices to be in substance as follows, to wit:

of

"Notice is hereby given, that on the

18 at the

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day in the election district composed of the (township, ward or town, as the case may be,) of in the county of

an election will be opened at 9 o'clock in the morning, and will continue open until 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day.

Dated this

Signed,

day of

18

A. B. (Township, City or Town Clerk.") Provided, that no failure of any clerk to give notice as aforesaid, shall in any manner invalidate any election.

Taylor v. Taylor, 10 M. (107); 18 M. 64, 351.

§ 5. Poll lists-registration. The judges of the election in each election district, at least fifteen (15) days before any election, shall make a list of the names of all per

sons who are entitled to vote in their respective election districts at such election, which list shall contain the surnames of such persons in alphabetical order. Three (3) copies of said list shall, at least ten (10) days before such election, be posted in three (3) public places in each election district, together with a notice of the time and place when and where the judges of election will be present for the purpose of making corrections in said list. The said judges of election, on Wednesday next preceding such election, and, if necessary, for the next three (3) days, from the hour of nine (9) in the forenoon to four (4) in the afternoon, and in cities containing a population of four thousand (4,000) inhabitants and upwards, in addition thereto, from the hour of eight (8) to the hour of ten (10) in the evening, and on the day immediately preceding such election from the hour of nine (9) in the forenoon to nine (9) in the afternoon, and for two (2) hours next preceding the opening of the polls on the day of such election, shall be present at the place appointed for the holding of such election in their respective election districts, for the purpose of making corrections in said list. In making such corrections said judges of election shall insert upon such list the additional names of all persons properly shown to be entitled to vote at such election, and erase from said list the names of all persons properly shown not to be entitled to vote at such election. The said judges, in first making out said list, shall consult the poll-list used at the last preceding election in their respective election districts, and shall place on said list the names of all persons whom they know, or with reasonable diligence ascertain, to be entitled to vote at such election, in their respective election districts. In making the final corrections of said list, to ascertain who are entitled to vote at such election, the said judges shall be governed by the rules and regulations hereinafter for that purpose prescribed; and at such election no person shall vote whose name is not upon said list at the time of opening the polls: provided, that any person offering to vote, whose name is not on said list, can produce evidence which satisfies all the judges that he has the qualifications of an elector in said district, and entitled to vote at such election, but whose name has been accidentally omitted from said list, then the name of such person shall be added to said list, and he shall be allowed to vote; nor shall the vote of any person be rejected whose name is upon said list at the time of opening the polls: provided, that evidence satisfying all the judges be produced showing that the name was registered by mistake, and that the person so offering to vote has not the qualifications of an elector in said district and is not entitled to vote at such election, then the name of such person shall be striken from said list, and he shall not be allowed to vote; but in all such cases an entry shall be made opposite the name added to or striken from [the] said list after the opening of the polls. And the judges of election shall make or cause to be made a duplicate of said list, so that there shall be two (2) register poll-lists at every election. (As amended 1877 c. 7.)

$6. Judges and clerks. If either of the judges of election of any election district fails to attend at the time and place appointed for correcting said list, or holding any election; or if either of said judges is a candidate at such election, or refuses to act as judge, the qualified electors of the said election district present shall choose, viva voce, some qualified elector of said election district to act as judge, instead of such judge so absent, disqualified or refusing to act; and if any clerk of election is absent, disqualified, or refuses to act, the judges of election shall appoint some qualified elector in place of such clerk. And before any judge or clerk of election enters upon the performance of any of the duties imposed upon him by this chapter, he shall take and subscribe an oath in the following form, to wit: "I, A. B.. (judge or clerk of the election, as the case may be.) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will perform the duties of (judge or clerk of election, as the case may be,) according to law and the

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