At any time not later than the twentieth day preceding any election or primary, any qualified elector of an election district, including any watcher and any inspector of registration, may petition the board of elections thereof to cancel the registration of any registered elector of such district, setting forth, under oath, supported by the affidavits of at least two adult persons, sufficient grounds for such cancellation, and also setting forth that due notice of the time and place when said petition would be presented had been given to the person so registered, personally, at least 48 hours prior to the presentation of the same, or that he could not be found at the place given in the district register as his residence and that the person in charge thereof, to be mentioned by name in said petition, had declared that he or she was well acquainted with the names of all persons residing at the address given as such residence and that the person so registered had never been or was no longer one of them, and that no such person is residing in the district, whereupon the board shall forthwith cancel the registration of such elector, and amend accordingly the general and district registers and the other records affected, unless the person so registered shall appear and show cause why the same should not be done.