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When we do have such a census, then it
may be that we will want to reapportion
the General Assembly after every such
census, but until we do have a census
every five years, I would prefer for the
reapportionment to be on the basis of ac-
tual census figures.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any ques-
tions of the sponsor of the amendment?
Delegate Singer.
DELEGATE SINGER: Delegate Smith,
you refer to the 1970 election as being
open, but to be covered by temporary pro-
vision. What did you have in mind in re-
gard to that?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Smith.
DELEGATE M. SMITH: Well, on that,
naturally, if I had my druthers, I would
pick 1960, but I can recognize that there
is an actual problem, and I would not jump
up too far if you went on the basis of some
state planning commission guesstimate at
that time, although I do not like it.
You can say I am leaping my argu-
ment when I say that I would accept it in
1970, but what you folks are proposing is
that the State Planning Commission guess-
timates be what is to be followed every
twenty years from here on out, and it is
that to which I am opposed.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any fur-
ther questions to the sponsor of the amend-
ment?
Delegate Henderson.
DELEGATE HENDERSON: Delegate
Smith, is it not true, it seems to me I have
read, that the Federal census itself has
been questioned, that its accuracy has been
impuned, and is it not better to have an
estimate, even from the State Planning
Commission, than to go along as we are,
because we know that right now we are
not properly counted.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Smith.
DELEGATE M. SMITH: Judge Hender-
son, I recognize that there have been some
shots taken at the Bureau of the Census.
I think, however, that you did not under-
stand something I said a moment earlier.
I am not saying to you, sir, that there
should be nothing done in 1970. What I am
saying, however, is that we should not
write into this Constitution a provision by
which every twenty years, instead of fol-
lowing the actual head count, we are going
to go by some figures that are guessed up
here in Baltimore.
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THE CHAIRMAN: Any further Ques-
tions of the sponsor of the amendment?
If not, the Chair recognizes Delegate
Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man and ladies and gentlemen, nowhere in
this constitution is it stated that the dis-
tricting commission for the legislature is
required to follow any set of statistics pre-
pared by anybody. The commission and the
legislature have the discretion to determine
what set of statistics they want to use, or
what records they want to employ in
determining how many people are living in
the State at any given time.
The reason that we have suggested that
at this particular time the State Planning
Department has figures is because it ap-
pears to us that these are the best figures
and will be the best figures for the pur-
pose of the 1970 election.
But this is not to preclude, as I said
before, the possibility of a special federal
census. It is not to preclude the possibility
of any other avenue of determining the
number of people existing in the State at
any given time, and it is within the discre-
tion of the commission and the legislature
to determine what are the best records or
what are the best estimates.
I submit to you that passing a constitu-
tion in 1968 which does not provide a very
major avenue of relief until six years later,
1974, is postponing justice far too long for
the people of the State of Maryland.
This Constitutional Convention, it seems
to me, has as one of its major duties the
proper allocation of districts on a popula-
tion basis and if we should put a time fac-
tor in here, a time capsule, which delays
the application of the sorely needed remedy
for so long a period as six years, I would
say we have cast a very serious shadow
over this constitution generally. It might
well jeopardize it.
I submit to you that it is a far better
thing to do, to enter 1970 with as good a
set of figures as we can obtain. I also sug-
gest to you that if we do not do so, and the
federal census figures come out in late
1970 and show a gross job of redistricting
and a badly malapportioned State, that we
are going to have a lawsuit and we may
very well have a special election as a re-
sult of a mandate from a federal or state
court in 1971 or 1972, so that in reality we
only think we can buy time until 1974.
It is a far better thing, it seems to me, to
make an honest, genuine, bona fide attempt
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