Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That hereafter, at any election held in this State, all white male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years, and having resided in the State six months, next preceding such election, shall enjoy the right of an elector, whether such elector has been naturalized or not: Provided, That when any such person shall present himself to give his vote, and either of the judges shall suspect that such person does not possess the aforesaid qualification of age and residence, or either, or if his vote shall be challenged by any elector, who has previously voted at such election, the judges of the election shall tender to such person the oath or affirmation in the following form: “I, A.B. do solemnly swear, or affirm, (as the case may be) that I am a resident of the county of in the State of Illinois, that I have resided in this State for the period of six months immediately preceding this election, that I have, to the best of my knowledge and belief, attained to the age of twenty-one years, and that I have not voted at this election.”2

Sec. 2. Any person so offering his vote at such election, and shall take such oath or affirmation, or shall offer to take such oath or affirmation, as prescribed in the preceding section, his vote shall be received, unless it shall be proved by evidence satisfactory to a majority of the judges that such oath or affirmation is false; and if such person shall refuse to take such oath or affirmation, his vote shall be rejected; and if any person shall take the oath or affirmation as is before named, knowing such oath or affirmation to be false, he shall be deemed guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury, and punished accordingly.

Sec. 3. If any judge or judges of election shall refuse to receive the vote of any such person so residing in this State, six months before election, and being at the time of offering his vote, twenty-one years of age, as stated in the first section of this act, and he shall comply or offer to comply with the first section of this act, then every judge, or the judges so refusing or neglecting to receive the vote of the person aforesaid, and to record it as a legal vote, shall be liable to be indicted, and on conviction shall be fined five hundred dol-

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lars, and imprisoned not exceeding thirty days, in the county jail, and such judge or judges may also be sued in an action of case by the person aforesaid, and upon proof of such refusal or neglect in said judge or judges to receive and record the vote of such person so offering to vote, damages may be recovered of such judge or judges not exceeding five hundred dollars.3

Sec. 4. If the clerk of the county commissioners’ court shall neglect or refuse to perform the duties as pointed out in the seventeenth section of an act entitled “An act regulating elections,” approved January tenth, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, he shall be liable to be indicted, and on conviction shall be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, and imprisoned not exceeding thirty days, and may be sued in an action of trespass on the case for damages not exceeding five hundred dollars by the person injured by reason of the neglect or refusal of such clerk.4

Sec. 5. If any person shall mutilate or erase any name, or figure, or word, in a poll book, taken or kept at any election, or if any person shall take away such poll book from the place where it has been deposited for safe keeping, with an intention of destroying the same, or to prevent the election of any person, or if any person shall destroy any poll book so taken and kept at any election, he or she shall be liable to be indicted, and on conviction, shall be fined five hundred dollars, and imprisoned not exceeding sixty days in the county jail: Provided, That nothing contained in this act shall conflict with the one hundred and sixty-fourth section of the criminal code5.6

Approved, February 20, 1841.