Civil Government of Virginia | Page 5

insures the purity of the ballot and the intelligent exercise of the right of franchise. Elections. Shall be by ballot; for State, county, corporation and district officers, shall be held the Tuesday after the first Monday in November; except for mayors and councils of cities and towns, which shall be the second Tuesday of June.
State executive officers elected at a general election shall enter upon the duties of their respective offices the first of February next thereafter; members of the House of Delegates and all county, corporation, and district officers on the first of January, and Senators on the second Wednesday in January next thereafter; and mayors and councils of cities and towns on the first of September next succeeding their election. State executive officers elected by the General Assembly enter upon their duties the first of March following their election.
They shall continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices until their successors shall have qualified.
The BALLOT is the printed list containing the names of all the candidates to be voted for at an election. The places where the people vote are called POLLS, and they are kept open for one day-- from sunrise to sunset. At the polls there are officers called judges or clerks of election. When the voter goes to the poll on election day, one of the judges hands him a ballot. With the ballot he goes alone into a small compartment or BOOTH, where there is a desk with a pencil or pen and ink. There he draws a mark with the pen or pencil through the names of the candidates he does not wish to vote for, leaving the names of the candidates he votes for unmarked He then, folds up the ballot, with the names of the candidates on the inside, and hands it to one of the judges, who drops it into a box, where it remains until the votes are counted after the poll closes. The candidates who receive the highest number of votes are declared elected. This is done by the Board of State Canvassers (which see).
STATE OFFICERS are officers elected by the voters of the whole State. The governor, the lieutenant-governor, and attorney-general are State officers.
A CORPORATION is a body or number of persons formed and authorized by law to carry on business under one name as a single person. Banks and railroad and manufacturing companies are corporations. They are called private corporations because the business they do is for the benefit of private individuals. The people of cities and towns have power by law to carry on the government of their cities and towns as corporations. They are called public corporations because they are formed for the purpose of government, and act for the whole people (see under Government of Cities and Towns)
QUALIFIED, with regard to State officers, means having taken the oath of office. The Constitution requires that every person, before entering upon the discharge of any functions as an officer of the State, must solemnly swear or affirm that he will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the State of Virginia, and that he will faithfully perform the duty of the office to which he has been elected. To take this oath is to QUALIFY for the office.
The State is entitled to two U. S. Senators and ten Representatives in Congress, and to twelve votes for President and Vice-President in the Electoral College.
The ELECTORAL COLLEGE is the name given to the body of persons who elect the President and Vice-President of the United States. At a presidential election, which takes place every four years, the people do not vote directly for the candidates who have been nominated for President and Vice-President. They vote for persons nominated to be ELECTORS, and each State has the right to choose as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress. Virginia has two senators and ten representatives in Congress, therefore at the presidential election it chooses twelve electors. This is what is meant by saying that it has twelve votes in the Electoral College.
The members of the Electoral College do not meet all together to elect the President and Vice-President. The electors of each State meet in the capital of their own State in January after they are elected, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President. after which they send lists to the President of the United States Senate showing how they have voted. Those lists are examined in the Senate and the votes counted. Then the candidates who have received the votes of a majority of the Electoral College are declared elected.
QUESTIONS.
1. From whom are the powers of government derived?
2. What are magistrates?
3. For what is government instituted?
4. What are fundamental principles?
5. What is the Bill of Rights?
6 What is a constitution?
7. What