has to go back to Pennsylvania and vote
when he has been here only eleven months.
A man must have been six months in the
county where he offers to vote.
Mr. SANDS. Of course this is intended to
apply to people who have a county residence,
that is a residence of six months. Suppose
Baltimore county is put into one congres-
sional district, and suppose a man who has
been living in Baltimore county had no resi-
dence there and came over into Howard county
and offered to vote, and then went back to
Baltimore county and offered to vote. Would
my construction enable him to vote? Cer-
tainly not. He must have lived in Baltimore
county" six months, or be could not go back
there and vote. The six months residence
must be in the county where he votes.
The PRESIDENT. I may be mistaken, but
under this provision as I have always re-
garded it, a man does not lose his residence.
Mr. SANDS. I think the plain intent is to
secure the individual his vote, that he may
not lose his representation in the federal Con-
gress simply from moving from one county
to another, that he may not lose his county
residence.
Mr. STIRLING. He is required to have the
same residence in voting for a member of
Congress as in voting for a county officer.
Mr. MILLER. One word with regard to the
idea that a man removing from one county
to another has the right to go back into his
county lo vote until he obtains a residence
in another county. The constitution declares
that be must have resided one year next pre-
ceding the election in the State, and six
months next preceding the election in the
county in which he offers to vote. If he has
gone away and left a county with the inten-
tion of taking up his residence in another
county for four months, how can he be resi-
lient there for six months next preceding the
election? It seems to me that the construction
the gentleman from Baltimore city (Mr.
Stirling) has put upon this section is perfectly
proper; that the word "not" should be
stricken out in order to cover the case he
mentions; and then if we want to allow a
man to go back to another county to vole,
you ought to make a special provision for it,
If you allow the word " not " to remain,
you let a man vote where he has not resided
for six months next preceding the election.
Mr. SCOTT. I am right glad to be present
at this grammar school. This very same
question was taken up in committee, and I
took the same ground then, that the word
" not" ought to be left out; but I was over-
ruled in the committee, and not being pres-
ent when this was acted upon, my attention
was not called to it in the convention. I am
of opinion that it ought to be stricken out.
Mr, SCHLEY. It is very evident that the
word "not 'is oat of place. The whole
context this section applies to the division |
and subdivision of counties in the State into
different electoral districts. There is some
ambiguity in the whole phraseology of the
section; because it speaks of the electoral
districts in the eighteenth line, and election
districts in the twenty-first line, meaning dif-
ferent things.
Let me suppose a case which might occur un-
der the constitution. It was proposed to give
Baltimore county two senators in the general
assembly of the State. Now suppose Balti-
more county bad been divided into two sen-
atorial districts, and that the northern por-
tion had formed the first. A, living in the
southern part, removes to the northern part
antecedent to the election. This provision—
A having moved into the northern part of
Baltimore county says in the sixteenth line
that he must have been a resident of that
part of the county in which he offers to vote
for six months next preceding the election.
and not having been in the northern part of
the county for six months, he cannot vote
there. But having been a resident of Balti-
more county all his life, be feels that he is
entitled to vote for a senator in the general
assembly of the State; and the subsequent
part of this section gives him the power, be-
cause it says that having acquired a residence
in Baltimore county, having resided there
more than six months, he shall be entitled to
vote in the election district from which he
removed.
1 apprehend this is the object, and the only
object of this part of the section. It might
have been-expressed more dearly; but that
is the exact language, excepting this word
"not," as I understand, of the old constitu-
tion, I think that in this view of the case it
is very clear that the word " not" is out of
place, and ought to be stricken out.
The PRESIDENT. The motion should be to
open the section for the amendment, under
the fifty-third rule.
Mr. HEBB. I make that motion.
The question being taken, the result was—
ayes 30, noes 28.
Less than a majority of the members
elected to the convention having voted in the
affirmative, the motion was rejected.
Section two, containing the oath to be
taken by voters, having been read,
Mr. SANDS moved to open the section for
amendment by inserting "mental" in line
fortieth, so as to read: " and I swear this
without any mental reservation or evasion."
The motion was rejected.
Mr. BRISCOE moved to open section two,
for amendment, in order to insert in the
thirty-eighth line in the oath, after the word
"notwithstanding," the words: "and that
1 am now and have heretofore been in favor
of the restoration of the Union as it was and
the constitution as it is ." Upon that motion
he demanded the yeas and nays. |
