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The Committee attempted ,to obtain in-
formation from other states where the vot-
ing age has been lowered, but unfortunately,
the only study available was of a very
limited scope, and it was decided that its
validity could not be used to support or
negate the Committee's position. The Com-
mittee could find little evidence to indicate
that this was any more valid with respect
to considerable numbers of young people
than it actually was with respect to their
already enfranchised elders.
To lower the age to nineteen would
grant the vote to about 125,000. Our pres-
ent Maryland population twenty-one years
and over is slightly over 2 million, so that
if the nineteen year olds were enfranchised,
these people would form about six percent
of the total electorate, assuming that this
age group would register in the same pro-
portion as the now enfranchised population.
The other elements in section 1 pertain
to residency. The committee recommenda-
tion sets the residence requirements at six
months in the state and three months in
the house of delegates district. The pres-
ent Constitution sets the time at one year
in the State, or six months in the county
or legislative district of Baltimore City.
These requirements are even older than
the present Constitution, having been es-
tablished in the Constitution of 1851. Resi-
dence requirements are needed to permit
the voter to become familiar with the
community and the political issues to be
decided in each election. The Committee
agrees with the commission that these
requirements could be met with a state
residence of six months and the district
residence of three. The increase in the
general level of education, coupled with
the coverage given by communications
media to political issues and campaigns
assures the Committee of the probability
of informed voting.
The last sentence of section 1 protects
the right to vote of persons who move
from one house of delegates district to
another within three months of an election.
Such persons are permitted to retain their
status as qualified voters in the house of
delegates district from which they moved.
It was the Committee's opinion that they
would be more familiar wih the issues in
the area from which they moved, and such
protection and continuation of their qualifi-
cations in the old district would, of course,
extend only for one election.
Section 2 establishes the qualifications
for voting in municipal elections. Up until
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now municipalities have been free to es-
tablish whatever eligibility standards they
desired. The courts have ruled that because
municipal elections were not mentioned in
the Constitution that they could not be
made to comply with other elements that
are currently in our Constitution.
The Committee felt that there were
certain minimum standards that munici-
palities should be asked to observe. Those
would be United States citizenship, pri-
marily, but in addition, the Committee
recognizes the fact that the 153 municipali-
ties in this State, share little in common
with each other, and they vary tremen-
dously with respect to size, function, loca-
tion, and so forth. For this reason, the
Committee realized that some special needs
must be met, and section 2 reflects these
needs.
It is conceivable that a longer residence
is necessary to become familiar with mu-
nicipal affairs, since municipalities do not
normally enjoy the same news value as do
some of the larger subdivisions. For this
reason, and because of the variations in
present municipal requirements, the Com-
mittee agreed that municipalities could
establish their own local residence require-
ments up to a maximum of a year. We rec-
ognize this residence could be as little as
one day, but we felt that the municipalities
should have the option of determining what
best met their own situation. We denied
the municipalities the right to set the
voting age at what they want, hence the
second exception.
Thirdly, some municipalities have large
numbers of summer residents who out-
number the permanent population and who
are indeed the economic lifeblood of some
of these communities. Some of these com-
munities have in the past extended the
right to vote to non-resident property own-
ers, and the Committee concluded that they
should be permitted to continue doing so.
There was some question raised as to
the constitutionality of this procedure, but
legal precedence in other states, and at
least concurrence by the Supreme Court,
have convinced the majority of the Com-
mittee that this procedure is sanctioned
by the courts and not likely at the moment
to be subjected to successful challenge.
Section 2 would permit voting in presi-
dential elections, and only for the Presi-
dent and Vice-President, by those persons
who have moved to the State too recently
to meet our other residence requirements.
There is actually now on the books a law
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