e one held in April shall be called the court of
election, wherein shall be annually chosen the magistrates--one of whom
shall be the governor--and other public officers, who are to administer
justice according to the laws here established; where there are no laws
provided to do it in accordance with the laws of God; and that these
rulers shall be elected by all the freemen within the limits of the
commonwealth, who have been admitted inhabitants of the towns where they
severally live, and who have taken the oath of fidelity to the new
state; and that they shall all meet at one place to hold this election.

2. It is provided that after the voters have all met and are ready to
proceed to an election, the first officer to be chosen shall be a
governor, and after him a body of magistrates and other officers. Every
voter is to bring in, to those who are appointed to receive it, a piece
of paper with the name of him whom he would have for governor written
upon it, and he that has the greatest number of papers with his name
written upon them was to be governor for that year. The other
magistrates were elected in the following manner. The names of all the
candidates were first given to the secretary for the time being, and
written down by him, in the order in which they were given; the
secretary was then to read the list over aloud and severally nominate
each person whose name was so written down, in its order, in a distinct
voice, so that all the citizen voters could hear it. As each name was
read, they were to vote by ballot, either for or against it, as they
liked; those who voted in favor of the nominee did it by writing his
name upon the ballot--those who voted against him simply gave in a blank
ballot; and those only were elected whose names were written upon a
majority of all the paper ballots handed in under each nomination. These
papers were to be received and counted by sworn officers appointed by
the court for that purpose. Six magistrates, besides the governor, were
to be elected in this way. If they failed to elect so many by a majority
vote, then the requisite number was to be filled up by taking the names
of those who had received the highest number of votes.

3. The men thus to be nominated and balloted for were to be propounded
at some general court held before the court of election, the deputies of
each town having the privilege of nominating any two whom they chose.
Other nominations might be made by the cou