the duties and be entitled to all the privileges of the firemen heretofore appointed in said village.

§3. This act shall take effect immediately.

CHAP. 130.

AN ACT respecting elections other than for militia and town officers.

Passed April 5, 1842.

The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

TITLE I.

Of the qualifications, disabilities and privileges of electors.

SEC. 1.-Qualification of voters, except persons of color.

SEC. 2.-Qualifications of persons of color.

SEC. 3.-Persons convicted of infamous crimes not to vote unless pardoned.

SEC. 4.—No civil process to be served on an elector during election.

tions.

§ 1. Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who Qualificsshall have been an inhabitant of this state one year next preceding any election, and for the last six months a resident of the county where he may offer his vote, is entitled to vote in the town or ward where he actually resides, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are, or hereafter may be, elective by the people.

§ 2. No man of color shall vote at any such election, unless Ibid. he shall have been for three years a citizen of this state; and for one year next preceding the election at which he shall offer his vote, shall have been seised and possessed of a freehold a estate of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, over and above all debts and encumbrances charged thereon; and shall have been actually rated and paid a tax thereon.

§ 3. No person who shall have been convicted of an infa- Disabilities mous crime, deemed by the laws of this state a felony, at any time previous to an election, shall be permitted to vote thereat; unless he shall have been pardoned before or after his term of imprisonment has expired, and restored by pardon to all the rights of a citizen.

§4. Whenever an election shall be held in any city or town, Privileges. pursuant to this Chapter, no declaration by which a suit shall be commenced, or any civil process, or proceeding in the nature of civil process, shall be served on any elector entitled to vote in such city or town, on the day on which such election shall be held.

Restrictions.

5. No court shall be opened, or transact any business, in any city or town on the day such election shall be held therein, unless it be for the purpose of receiving a verdict or discharging a jury, or the naturalization of foreigners; and every adjournment of a court in such city or town, on the day next preceding the day any such election shall be held therein, shall always be to some other day than the day of such election, except such adjournment as may be made after a cause has been committed to a jury. But this section shall not prevent the exercise of the jurisdiction of any single magistrate, when it shall be necessary in criminal cases to preserve the peace, or to arrest offenders.

TITLE II.

General elections.

Ibid.

Special elections.

When held.

Duration.

Special

elections.

Of general and special elections; the time and purpose of holding them; and the persons by whom held.

§ 1. General elections are such as are held at the same time in every county, for the election of all, or some of the following officers, namely, Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, senators, members of assembly, sheriffs, clerks of counties, coroners representatives in congress, and electors of president and vicepresident.

§ 2. The register and clerk of the city and county of NewYork, shall also be chosen at a general election.

§ 3. Special elections are such as are held only in a particular district or county, at a time when no general election is held, for the choice of one or more of the officers proper to be chosen at a general election.

§ 4. General elections shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of November in every year; special elections at the times and places of which legal notice shall have been given; but no special election shall be held within forty days previously to a general election.

5. General and special elections shall be held for one day only.

6. Special elections shall be held in the following cases: 1. When an officer other than a Governor, LieutenantGovernor and elector of president and vice-president, proper to be chosen at a general election, shall not have been chosen by reason of two or more candidates having received an equal number of votes for the same office.

2. When the right of office of a person elected to the office. of a representative in congress, senator, member of the assembly, sheriff, or clerk of any county, or sheriff, clerk, or register of the city and county of New-York, shall cease before commencement of the term of service for which such officer shall have been elected.

3. When a vacancy occurs in the office of any member of Vacancies. assembly after the last day of December in any year, and before the first day of April following, if such vacancy shall ***** deprive a county of its entire representation.

4. When in case of an extra session of the legislature, Ibid. any county shall by a vacancy in the office of member of assembly, occurring between the first day of April, and ten days. before the time appointed for such extra session, be deprived of its entire representation.

§ 7. When a special election shall not have taken place as required by law, the vacancy which ought to have been supplied by such election shall be supplied at the next general election.

Ibid.

8. All vacancies in the office of representative in congress, Ibid. senator, sheriff and clerk of any county, or sheriff, clerk or register of the city and county of New-York, shall be supplied at the general election next succeeding the happening thereof; but when the term of service of any such officer will expire at the end of the year during which the vacancy in his office shall occur, no person shall be chosen to supply such vacancy; but the usual election shall be held for a new officer to hold during the constitutional term.

9. If a vacancy proper to be supplied at a general election, shall not have been supplied at the general election next succeeding the happening thereof, a special election to supply such vacancy shall then be held.

Ibid.

tions, how

§ 10. Special elections in the first case provided for in the Special elec sixth section of this Title, shall be ordered by the board of ordered. canvassers having the power to determine on the election of the officer omitted to be chosen and in all other cases, such election shall be ordered by the Governor, who shall issue his proclamation therefor.

tion.

11. Such proclamation shall specify the county or district Proclamain which such special election is to be held; the cause of such election; the name of the officer in whose office the vacancy has occurred; the time when his term of office will expire; and the day on which such election is to be held, which shall not be less than twenty nor more than forty days from the date of the proclamation.

§12. The elections in the several cities and towns shall be Elections, by election districts.

how held.

Governor

and Lieut.

election.

TITLE III.

Of the mode of notifying general and special elections.

ART. 1.-Of the notice to be given by the Secretary of State.

ART. 2.-Of the notices to be given by the county and State canvassers. ART. 3.-Of the notices to be given to town officers; the formation of election districts, and the appointment of inspectors of election thereof.

ARTICLE FIRST.

Of the notices to be given by the Secretary of State.

§ 1. The Secretary of State shall once in every two years, Governor's between the first day of July and the first day of September, immediately preceding the expiration of the term of office of the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor last chosen, direct and cause to be delivered to the sheriff, clerk, or first judge of each county, a notice in writing, that at the next general election, a Governor and Lieutenant-Governor are to be elected.

Senators

and county

§ 2. He shall also, between the first days of July and Sepofficers. tember in each year, direct and cause to be delivered to the sheriff, clerk, or first judge of each county, a notice in writing, specifying the names of the senators for the district to which such county shall belong, whose term of service shall expire on the last day of December thereafter, and a like notice, specifying the several officers to be chosen in such county, at the then next general election.

Vacancies.

Special elections.

Publication

§ 3. If any vacancy shall exist in a county, proper to be supplied at the ensuing general election, he shall in like manner, between the first day of July and the fifteenth of October previous to such election, direct and cause to be delivered to the sheriff, clerk, or judge of such county, a notice in writing, specifying the cause of such vacancy; the name of the officer in whose office it has occurred, and the time when his term of office will expire; and if any such vacancy shall exist in a district, he shall in like manner direct and cause to be delivered to the sheriff, clerk, or judge of each county therein, the like notice..

§ 4. When a special election shall have been ordered by the Governor in a county, the Secretary of State shall forthwith cause a copy of the Governor's proclamation to be delivered to the sheriff, clerk, or first judge of such county; and when ordered in a district, to the sheriff, clerk, or first judge of each county therein.

§ 5. The Secretary of State shall cause a copy of each notice issued by him, and of such proclamation of the Governor, to be published in the state paper, once in each week, from the date of such notice or proclamation, until the election to which it shall refer.

ARTICLE SEcond.

Of the notices to be given by the county and state canvassers.

when and

$6. When a special election shall be necessary, in the Notices case of an equality of votes, provided for in the second Title of how given. this Chapter, the board of canvassers, having power to determine on the election of the officer omitted to be chosen, shall, without delay, direct and cause to be delivered to the sheriff, clerk, or first judge of each county in the district, or of the county in which such election is to be held, a notice specifying the officer to be chosen; the time for which he is to be chosen, and the day on which such election is to be held; which day shall not be less than twenty nor more than forty days from the date of such notice.

7. The notice of such an election, if ordered by the board How signed. of state canvassers, shall be signed by the Secretary of State, and if ordered by the county canvassers, by the chairman and clerk of the board.

ARTICLE THIRD.

Of elections in cities and towns; of the notices to be given to city and town officers; the formation of election districts, and the appointment of inspectors of election thereof.

tricts in ci

§ 8. The several cities of this state shall be divided by the Election dis common council of the said cities respectively, into conve- ties. nient election districts for the holding of all general and special elections, and all elections of the officers of such cities who are elective by the people.

tricts.

9. Every ward in the city, containing not more than five Ward dishundred voters, shall be an election district; every ward in a city containing more than five hundred voters and not more than eight hundred voters, may, on or before the first Monday of October next, or in any year thereafter, be divided by the common council of such city, if they shall deem expedient, into two districts, to contain, as near as may be, an equal number of voters; and every ward of a city containing more than eight hundred voters, shall, on or before the first Monday of October next, and as often annually thereafter as may be necessary or expedient, be divided by the common council of such city into two or more districts, in such manner as shall be entire within one ward, and shall contain, as near as may be, an equal number of voters; and no district shall contain more than eight hundred voters.

be made.

10. Whenever a ward shall be divided into two or more Map of ward districts, the common council shall immediately publish the districts to same, by making a map or description of such division, defining it by known boundaries, and keeping such map or description open for public inspection in the office of the clerk