COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.

In force July 1, AN ACT to provide for the election of a Board of Commissioners in Cook county and to prescribe their duties.

1871.

commissioners.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That on the Election of first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventyone, there shall be elected, by the legal voters of Cook county, fifteen commissioners, five of whom shall hold their office one year, five two years, and five three years, to be determined by lot: and annually thereafter there shall be elected five commissioners, for the term of three years. Any vacancy may be filled at the next annual election.. Ten of said commissioners shall be elected from the city of Chicago, and five of said commissioners shall be elected from the towns outside of said city, as follows: one from the district composed of Lake View, Jefferson, Niles, Evanston, New Trier, and Northfield; one from the district composed of the towns of Wheeling, Palatine, Barrington, Hanover, Schaumburg, Elk Grove, and Maine; one from the district composed of the towns of Leyden, Cicero, Proviso, Riverside, Lyons, and Lake; one from the district composed of the towns of Hyde Park, Worth, Calumet and Thornton, and one from the district composed of the towns of Bloom, General ticket. Rich, Bremen, Orland, Palos and Lemont. The commissioners elected under this act shall be elected upon a general ticket, and the votes shall be returned and canvassed the Term of office. same as for other county officers. Their term of office shall begin on the first Monday of December, after their election, and they shall hold their office until their successors are elected and qualified.

To take oath of office.

§ 2. The said commissioners shall take the oath of office prescribed by the constitution. They shall have regular meetings on the first Mondays of December, March, June Style of board. and September of each year. They shall be known as "The Board of Commissioners of Cook county," and as such board of commissioners shall supersede the board of supervisors in Cook county in the management of the county affairs of said county, and shall exercise the same powers, perform the same duties, be subject to the same rules, regulations and penalties, and receive the same compensation for their services as prescribed by law for the board of supervisors. APPROVED April 22, 1871.

Powers.

COUNTY SEATS.

AN ACT to provide for the removal of county seats.

In force July 1,

1872.

removal.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That all Elections for elections for the removal of county seats shall be held on the second Tuesday after the first Monday of November, at the usual places of holding elections; and the same persons who were judges and clerks of the next preceding general election, in their respective election precincts, shall act as judges and clerks of such county seat elections; and all vacancies in the respective boards of election shall be filled in the same manner as at general elections.

tition.

§ 2. Public notice shall be given of the intention to cir-Notice of peculate a petition praying for an election for the removal of the county seat of any county from its then present location to some other point within said county, and in said petition designated, at least ten days before the same is circulated, by publication in some newspaper printed in said county, and by posting three printed notices in three public places at the county seat, one of which shall be placed on the court house door, and a like number at the place to which the county seat is proposed to be removed, in which notices the intent of such petition shall be set forth; and all signers to such petition procured before such notice is given or procured, six months before the first day of the term of court at which the application is to be made, shall be void, and stricken from such petition; and whenever such petition or petitions, addressed to the county court of such county, and stating the time when such election shall be held, shall be signed by a number of legal voters of said county, at general elections, who are not residents of the city, or township (if the county seat is not in a city) in which the county seat is located, equal in number to two-fifths of all the votes cast in said county at the last preceding presidential election therein, and shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county court of said county, not less than forty nor more than eighty days before the first day of the next September term of the county court in such county, such petition shall be deemed a proposal to remove the county seat of such county, and the point designated in said petition shall be deemed and taken as fixed by said petition, in pursuance of law, whenever the court shall order. an election to such point as hereinafter provided, as the point to which it is proposed to remove the county seat of such county. There shall also be filed in the office of said Amdavit of loclerk, with said petitions, an affidavit of three legal voters

cal ty.

Residence of Bigners.

To be open to inspection.

Contest of petition.

When petition an 1 affidavit are filed.

of said county, stating whether or not the point named in said petition or petitions, to which it is proposed to remove the county seat of such county, is nearer to or further from the center of such county than the county seat; which affidavit may be traversed by the affidavit of any other three legal voters of said county, within ten days from the filing thereof; and if so traversed the county court shall, at the next September term of said court, after hearing evidence in the case, decide whether or not the point to which it is proposed to remove the county seat, is nearer to or further from the center of said county than the county seat.

§3. Each petitioner signing such petition shall write or cause to be written opposite to his name on said petition, the name of the city and ward in which he then resides, if he resides in a city, or if he does not reside in a city, then the name of the precinct or township in which he resides at the time of signing such petition; and no person shall sign such petition unless he shall be, at the time, a legal voter in said county at general elections.

4. Said petition or petitions shall, after the same are filed in the office of the clerk of the county court, be open to the inspection of any and all citizens of the county, but shall not be removed therefrom.

5. Any citizen and legal voter at general elections in said county, may contest the right of any person whose name is subscribed to said petition, to sign such petition under this act, and shall also have the right to contest said petition as to any names subscribed thereto that he shall have good reason to believe, and does believe, are fictitious, and no others: Provided, he shall, ten days before the first day of the next September term of the county court, file in the office of the clerk of the county court of such county, a list of the names of such persons whose right to sign such petition he is desirous of contesting, together with his affidavit, indorsed thereon, that he has good reason to believe, and does verily believe, that such persons named in said list are not legal voters of such county, and had no right in law to sign said petition; and shall also file in the office of said clerk, ten days before said September term of the county court, a list of such names as he has reason to believe are fictitious, together with his affidavit, indorsed thereon, that he has good reason to believe, and does verily believe, that such names are fictitious; and such persons shall have the right to contest such petitions only as to the names included in said lists.

§ 6. Whenever such petition or petitions and affidavit named in section two of this act shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county court of such county, it shall be the duty of the clerk, within ten days from the date of the filing of said petition or petitions and affidavit in his said office, to cause to be published in one or more newspapers published in such county, and if no newspaper shall be published in

said county then in the newspaper published nearest to the county seat of said county, a notice that such petition or petitions and affidavit have been filed in his said office, stating the time when they were so filed, and setting forth therein the substance of such petition or petitions and affidavit, and giving notice that on the first day of the next September term of said court, said court will hear testimony for and against said petitions, as to the list or lists of names on such petition, as may be filed in his office under and in compliance with section five of this act, and for or against such affidavit if the same has been traversed as provided in section two of this act. It shall be the duty of said court, on the first day of and during the said September term, to hear all evidence for and against said petition or petitions, as to the list or lists of names, filed in said court under section five of this act, and to strike from such petition or petitions all such names proven by competent evidence to be fictitious, or the names of persons having no legal right to sign the same under this act; and in case there shall be but one petition and no contest as to the same, or if there shall be a contest as to the same, and said petition shall, after striking therefrom all fictitious and illegal names, still contain the number of names of legal voters required by the second section of this act, the court shall order said election, according to the prayer of said petition. But in case there shall be two petitions filed in said court, praying for a vote to remove the county seat of such county to different points in said county, each, after striking therefrom all illegal and fictitious names, still being signed by two-fifths of the legal voters of the county, as required by section two of this act, then if the petition praying for a vote to remove the county seat nearer to the geographical centre of the county than the point named in the other petition shall be signed by a number of names equal to or greater than one-half of the sum of the names signed to the two petitions, the said court shall order the election for the removal of the county seat to that point nearest to the geographical centre of the county, according to the prayer of said petition; but if the other of said two petitions shall be sigued by a number of legal voters of said county equal to three-fifths of the sum of the names signed to the two petitions, then the court shall order the election. for the removal of the county seat of such county to said last mentioned point, and not otherwise. In case of a contest as to said petition or petitions, as provided for in this act, it shall be the duty of the clerk of said court, on request of the person contesting any petition under the provisions of this act, to issue subpoenas for such witnesses as said person shall name; and it shall be the duty of said clerk, on request of any legal voter of the county, for the purpose of sustaining any petition, in like manner to issue subpoenas for such witnesses as he shall name-said sub

Cases of contest shall have precedence.

Judges of elec

tion.

Challengers.

Ballots.

pœnas to be made returnable to the term of court at which such contest will be made.

§ 7. All cases of contest arising upon said petitions or affidavit shall have precedence over all other cases at the September term of said court, and shall be heard and determined at said term, and the decision of the county court shall be final. And in case of the sickness or other inability of said county judge to preside, or in case of a vacancy in said office, then it shall be the duty of the circuit judge of the circuit in which said county is located, to attend, hear and determine said contest.

8. Whenever the court shall order any county seat election under the provisions of this act, the court shall appoint three resident legal voters of the point to which it is proposed to remove the county seat, for each and every voting place in the city, precinct or township in which the county seat is situated, also to appoint three resident legal voters of the county seat for each and every voting place in the city, precinct or township to which it is proposed to remove the county seat, to sit with the regular judges to act as challengers of election at the voting places to which they are respectively assigned, and it shall be their duty to act as such challengers and to challenge any and all persons whom they have good reason to believe are not legal voters at such county seat election, and they shall sit with such judges of election until the close of said election, and during the canvass of the votes at said election. The said challengers, who are thus appointed to act with the regular juages of election, may, if they desire so to do, make an affidavit before any person authorized to administer oaths, setting forth in such affidavit that they have been appointed, as above provided, out of the city, precinct, township or ward where they would otherwise be voters, and that they desire to vote at such county seat election; which affidavit, together with the ballot, shall be sealed up in an envelope and left with one of the judges of election for the precinct, and on the day of election shall be by him presented to the board of election and opened in their presence. The affidavit shall be filed, kept and returned with the ballots for that precinct as other affidavits are, and the ballot shall be numbered and deposited in the ballot box, and the name entered on the poll books the same as other votes are.

9. The voting at any county seat elections shall be by ballot, and each ballot shall have printed or written thereon the words "For removal," or "Against removal." The polls shall be opened at eight o'clock A. M., and remain open until six o'clock P. M., at which time the polls may be closed, unless a majority of the board shall determine to keep open later. But the polls shall not, in any event, be kept open later than eight o'clock P. M. of the day of said election.