The pending question was upon the motion
of Mr. BELT to amend the section by adding
thereto the following:
" Provided, however, that no votes of sol-
diers cast at any one polling place or camp
shall be valid or taken into account in any
case where the total number returned shall
exceed the numbers of record in the office of
the adjutant general,"
Mr. MARBURY. My colleague (Mr. Belt,)
who offered this amendment, is not here
now. I therefore move to postpone the fur-
ther consideration of this section until to-
morrow.
Mr. AUDOUN. I hope this convention will
not postpone the consideration of this sec-
tion until to-morrow. There is no reason
why we should not go on and close up the
work of the convention. We have been here
long enough, rather too long, I think; at
any rate longer than I have been willing to
remain here. If gentlemen have absented
themselves from the convention to-night it is
their own fault and not the fault of the ma-
jority, who are here ready to transact busi-
ness. I hope, therefore, the convention will
refuse to postpone the consideration of this
section.
Mr. MARBURY. My colleague (Mr. Belt,)
who offered this amendment is detained from
the convention by very important business,
or I would not ask to have this section post-
poned.
The question was then taken upon the mo-
tion to postpone, and it was not agreed to.
The question was then taken upon the
amendment of Mr. BELT, and it was rejected.
No further amendment was offered to the
section.
The next section was then read, as follows :
"Section 3 The judges shall, as soon as
possible, transmit said returns, with the tick-
ets so strung, to the governor, who shall re-
ceive the returns of the soldiers' vote, and
shall cast up the same, and judge of the gen-
uineness and correctness of the returns, and
may recount the threaded tickets, so as to
satisfy himself, and the governor shall count
said vote with the aggregate vote of the State
on the adoption or rejection of this constitu-
tion, and shall wait for fifteen days after the
day on which the State vote is taken, so as to
allow the returns of the soldiers' vote to be
made, before the result of the whole vote is
announced. The governor shall receive the
returns of the soldiers' vote on said election
for State officers, presidential electors, and
members of congress,, and shall count the
same with the aggregate home vote on State
officers, and the aggregate home vote in each
district respectively for members of con-
gress."
Mr. DUVALL. I move to amend this sec-
tion by striking out the words " may recount
the threaded tickets," and insert "shall re
count or have recounted the threaded tickets." |
The question being taken upon the amend-
ment of Mr. DUVALL, it was rejected.
Mr. TODD. I move to amend by inserting
the words "and county" after tire word
"State" in the following sentence of this
section: "The governor shall receive the
returns of the soldiers' vote on said election
for State officers," &c. It would seem from
the wording of the section that there was
some doubt as to whether the soldiers would
be authorized to vote for county officers.—
My object in offering this amendment is to
place that matter beyond doubt, and give
them the right to vote for county as well as
State officers.
Mr. CUSHING, That would necessitate that
every man's residence should be registered in
the district in which he lives; a thing almost
impossible to be done in the army. It would
be almost impossible for soldiers to vote for
county officers.
Mr. STIRLING. The chairman of this com-
mittee (Mr. Ridgely) is absent. The com-
mittee on the schedule I know had this mat-
ter under consideration. The chairman of
the committee had a conversation with me
about it. The provision as here reported was
determined upon advisedly, because it was
impossible to make any provision by which
soldiers could cast their votes for county offi-
cers, without going into an extensive series of
provisions, which would encumber the con-
stitution to an extent which would be mani-
festly improper. We have proposed to let
them vote for State officers, because all that
would be required of them would be to show
that they are residents of the county, and
there will be but one return to be sent to the
governor. But if they are allowed to vote
for county officers, then the judges of election
in the camp would have lo make out a return
of the votes for every single officer voted for
in the county. We have certainly gone as
far as we can, in providing for the vote to be
taken on the day of the presidential election.
And we must trust to the legislature to make
provision for the future. Besides, the only
officers to be elected in 1864 are State officers
and member? of the general assembly; there
are no county officers to be elected in 1864.—
The committee were unable to provide, con-
sistently with the length of a provision in the
constitution, for soldiers to vote upon county
officers.
Mr. TODD. The remarks of the gentleman
from Baltimore city (Mr. Stirling) have sat-
isfied me of the difficulty of any attempt to
make provision for soldiers voting for county
officers. And as the legislature can provide
for that, I will withdraw my amendment.
The amendment was accordingly with-
drawn.
No further amendment was offered to this
section.
The next section was then read as follows :
"Section 4. The governor shall make |
