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to vote for the president four or five times
in his lifetime, as opposed to now voting
between the ages of twenty-one and seventy
or seventy-two. Look at how many more
times he gets an opportunity at the polls.
As I said before, and I want to reiterate,
we are not denying anybody anything. We
are delaying. We say it is a good thing-.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Committee,
we strongly urge you to give serious con-
sideration to this matter in the full, broad
spectrum of the problem, and not just as
it applies to a few people who think that
they cannot but be attractive to the young
voter, that they will get most of this
young teenage vote because they them-
selves are young and handsome and well-
educated and very articulate, and will nat-
urally win this young vote.
There i.s a lot more to this than that.
Let us all be very serious about it. Let us
ig-nore the pre-discussion polls and get down
to the discussion of the problem as it
surely exists, and cast our vote on the
question in the true light as we see it here
today. Of course, I am available for ques-
tions.
(A t this point President Evcy resinned
the Chair.)
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any ques-
tions of the minority spokesman?
Delegate Pascal.
DELEGATE PASCAL: Delegate Ryb-
czynski, to set the record straight, was not
that vote on nineteen, nine to seven?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: No. We
have 15 voting members in our Committee.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Pascal.
DELEGATE PASCAL: When we voted
on that particular issue, the officers of the
Convention were qualified to vote. I can
assure you it was nine to seven.
Regarding qualifications, whether or not
we want our legislators' age to be reduced,
did we not qualify that in the federal gov-
ernment, the age twenty-one gave the man
the privilege of voting, but to hold office a
congressman had to be twenty-five and a
senator thirty?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: We dis-
cussed thoso ages, but I did not quite get
the point of your inquiry, I will admit.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does the Chair
understand you did not understand Dele-
gate Pascal's question?
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DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: I am
afraid I did not, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Pascal,
would you restate your question?
DELEGATE PASCAL: Yes. This par-
ticular issue came up in Committee, and
we drew the parallel that nationally you
can vote for senators and congressman or
the President at twenty-one, but you are
not qualified to hold office as a congressman
until twenty-five, or senator at thirty. Is
that correct?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hutchin-
son.
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Delegate
Rybczynski, you made a few points that I
would like to ask you questions about.
First of all, you say that the twenty-one
year old voting age has been established
since medieval times, which seems to say
that you agree with the Commission report
that tradition is a great factor for not
changing the voting age. Is that true?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Yes, I
would say that is true.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hutchin-
son.
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Would
you agree we had any reason at all for
having a Constitutional Convention?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Oh, yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hutchin-
son.
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Isn't the
present Constitution based on a great
amount of tradition?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Much that
happens in our lives is based on tradition,
family, country, nation. A lot that happens
in the whole world is based on tradition.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hutchin-
son.
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: One fur-
ther question : You mentioned college stu-
dents overrunning the college community.
Do you recall what Delegate Gullett who
is also Mayor of College Park said to our
Committee when that question was brought
to him? Do you recall what he said?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: I believe
he said it did not bother him.
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