If there arises any dispute in an order of electors, one of the
censors or sub-censors appointed by them in case they be
electors, shall enter into the tent of that order, and that order
shall stand to his judgment in the decision of the controversy.
The like shall be done exactly by each other order of electors,
being sent as they are drawn, each with another copy of the same
list, into a distinct tent, till there be returned to the lord
high sheriff four competitors to every magistracy in the list;
that is to say, one competitor elected to every office in every
one of the four orders, which competitors the lord high sheriff
shall cause to be pronounced or read by a crier to the
congregation, and the congregation having heard the whole lists
repeated, the names shall be put by the lord high sheriff to the
tribe, one by one, beginning with the first competitor in the
first order, thence proceeding to the first competitor in the
second order, and so to the first in the third and fourth orders.
And the suffrages being taken in boxes by boys (as has been
already shown) shall be poured into the bowls standing before the
censors, who shall be seated at each end of the table in the
pavilion, the one numbering the affirmatives and the other the
negatives, and he of the four competitors to the first magistracy
that has most above half the suffrages of the tribe in the
affirmative, is the first magistrate. The like is to be done
successively by the rest of the competitors in their order. But
because soon after the boxes are sent out for the first name,
there be others sent out for the second, and so for the third,
etc., by which means divers names are successively at one and the
same time in balloting; the boy that carries a box shall sing or
repeat continually the name of the competitor for whom that box
is carrying, with that also of the magistracy to which he is