pired term for which such officer was appointed.

SEC. 12. All officers appointed by the common council, by the provisions of this act, may each be removed from office by the common council for misconduct, or for unfaithful or insufficient performance of the duties of his office, but notice of the charges against them, and an opportunity of being heard in their defence, shall first be given.

SEC. 13. On the day of elections, held by virtue of this act, the polls shall be opened in each ward, at the several places designated by the common council, at eight o'clock in the morning, and shall be kept open until twelve o'clock, (noon,) at which time said inspectors may adjourn for one hour, and the polls shall again be opened at one o'clock, and be kept open until four o'clock in the afternoon, at which hour they shall be finally closed.

SEC. 14. The inhabitants of the said city being electors under the constitution of the State of Michigan, and no others, are declared to be electors under this act, and qualified to vote at the elections held by virtue of this act; and each person offering to vote at any such election, if challenged by an elector of said city, before his vote shall be received, shall take one of the oaths now provided by the laws of this State, approved June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, entitled, "an act to provide for holding general and special elections," which oath shall be administered to him (them) by one of the inspectors of election, and if any person shall swear falsely, upon conviction thereof, he (they) shall be liable to the pains and penalties of perjury; but the common council of said city are hereby authorized and empowered to provide, by general ordinance, from time to time, to so change the form of the

oath or oaths to be administered to such elector, (if challenged,) as to conform to the constitution and laws of the State which may, from time to time, be in force.

SEC. 15. The aldermen of each ward, from and after the first Monday of May, 1871, shall constitute the board of inspectors of elections. The said inspectors shall, before opening the polls at any election, appoint one of their number chairman of such board of inspectors, and said board shall appoint one competent person to be clerk of said board of inspectors. Said person so appointed as clerk, shall take the constitutional oath of office, to be administered by either of said inspectors of said board, who are hereby authorized to administer the same. The two aldermen of each ward whose term of office soonest expires shall constitute the board of registration of their respective wards.

SEC. 16. Inspectors of elections, as specified in the preceding section, shall be inspectors of election held in said wards respectively, as well as for the election of State, district and county, as for the city officers.

SEC. 17. The electors shall vote by ballot, and each person offering to vote shall deliver his ballot, so folded as to conceal its contents, to one of the inspectors, in the presence of the board; the ballot shall be a paper ticket, which shall contain, written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, the names of the persons for whom the elector intends to vote, and shall designate the office to which each person so named is intended by him to be chosen'; but no ballot shall contain a greater number of names of persons designated for any office than there

are persons to be chosen at the election to fill such office.

SEC. 18. The ballot shall contain the names of persons designated as officers for the city, and as officers for the ward.

SEC. 19. If at any annual election to be held in the said city there shall be one or more vacancies to be supplied in any office, and at the same time any person is to be elected for the full term of said office, the term for which each person voted for, for the said office, shall be designated on the ballot,

SEC. 20. Immediately after the closing of the polls, the inspectors of election (or any two of them) shall, without adjournment, publicly canvass the votes received by them, and declare the result; and shall on the same day or on the next day, make a certificate, stating the number of votes given for each person for each office, and shall file such statement and certificate on the day of election, or on the next day, with the clerk of said city.

SEC. 21. It shall be the duty of the inspectors of election, on receiving the vote, as specified in section seventeen, to cause the same, without being opened or inspected, to be deposited in the proper box, provided by the common council for that purpose; the said board shall also write down, or cause to be written down, the name of each elector voting at such election, in a poll list, to be kept by said inspectors of election, or under their direction.

SEC. 22. The manner of canvassing said votes shall be the same as prescribed by law for canvassing votes at the general elections held in the State of Michigan.

SEC. 23. The person receiving the greatest number of votes for any office in said city or ward shall be deemed to have been duly elected to such office; and if an officer, except alderman, shall not have been chosen by reason of two or more candidates having received an equal number of ballots, (votes,) the common council shall, by ballot, elect such officer from the two candidates having the highest number of votes.

SEC. 24. All officers elected as hereinbefore provided shall enter upon the duties of their respective offices on the first Monday of May next following such election, unless otherwise herein provided.

SEC. 25. It shall be the duty of the clerk of said city, as soon as practicable, and within five days after the meeting of the common council, as provided in the preceding sections, to notify the officers respectively, of their election; and the said officers so elected and notified as aforesaid, shall within ten days after such notice, take the oath of office prescribed by the constitution of this State before some officer authorized by law to administer oaths, and file the same with the clerk of said city.

SEC. 26. Whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of mayor, or of alderman, by refusal or neglect to take the oath of office within the time required by this act, by resignation, death, ceasing to be an inhabitant of the city or ward for which he shall have been elected, removal from office, or by the decision of a competent tribunal declaring void his election, or for any other cause, the common council of said shall immediately appoint a special election to be held in the city, or in the ward for which such officer was chosen, at some suitable place therein, not less than five days, nor more than fifteen days from

the time of such appointment: Provided, That in case any such vacancy shall occur in the office of alderman within three months before the first Monday of April of any year, it shall be optional with the common council to order a special election or not, as they shall deem expedient.

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SEC. 27. In case a vacancy shall occur in any of the offices in this act declared to be elective or appointive, except mayor and alderman, the common council may, in their discretion, fill such vacancy by appointment of a suitable person, who an elector, and if appointed for a ward, who is also a resident of the ward for which he shall be appointed; and any officer appointed to fill a vacancy, if the office is elective, shall hold, by virtue of such appointment, only until the first Monday of May next succeeding; if an elective office, which shall have become vacant, was one of that class whose term of office continue after the next annual election, a successor for the unexpired term shall be elected at the next annual election. The common council shall appoint at a meeting to be held on the first Monday in May of each and every year, one of the members of the common council, who, in case of the absence, sickness, or other disability of the mayor, shall perform all the duties, and possess all the powers of mayor of said city, which officer shall be known as acting mayor.

SEC. 28. Whenever a special election is to be held, the common council shall cause to be delivered to the inspectors of election in the ward where such officer is to be chosen, a notice, signed by the clerk of said city, specifying the officer to be chosen, and the day and place at which such election is to be held, and the proceedings at such election shall be