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from his old residence district. When he
arrives at the new district, frequently the
three-month period has begun, or the
period of limitation has begun. He is re-
moved from his old district and he is then
ineligible under the constitution to vote in
the new district so that generally speaking he is in a high state of perturbation be-
cause although technically he might go
back and register, I suppose, in his old
district most people do not do it or they
just simply do not want to be bothered
with all that trouble so the fact of the
matter is they just lose their vote. The
idea is to remove this administrative dif-
ficulty.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate D. S. Mur-
ray.
DELEGATE D. S. MURRAY: Mr.
Chairman, I am sorry Delegate Rybczynski
got ahead of me because I almost lost my
nerve, but I will say it anyway. First I
am not available for questions from Dele-
gate Case. He scares me. Because if he
says do you or do you not, I am afraid I
might give the wrong answer.
Now to the point. Delegate Case said
that if he left Baltimore City, he would
have to go back and vote. I would like to
take exception to that because, Delegate
Case, you will not have to go back and
vote. In case you decided you would go
back within that three-month period (I
said I did not want him to ask me a ques-
tion. Neither does he have to answer) —
don't you think you would be rendering the
people who come in within that three-
month period a service because if you know
the people for whom you would have voted,
there is small chance you would vote for
the same ones for whom they would vote
even though they do not have a chance
right now. Maybe it does not make sense,
I know, but maybe it would to Delegate
Case.
Please forgive me, President Eney. I am
dead serious now. The second point I want
to make is that if he had moved to a new
county, and he said this was for the fu-
ture, maybe he misses his first turn to
vote. This does not bother me a great deal
because if it is for the future, you have to
know the people for whom you will vote.
That is the reason you go to the commu-
nity. You must have found something at-
tractive there; otherwise you would not
have moved. I do not think this three-
month period would bother anybody. It
would not restrict it. It adds a good leeway
there. I hope you will vote for the Com-
mittee Report.
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THE CPIAIRMAN: The Chair assumes
all your questions were purely rhetorical
questions.
Does any other delegate desire to speak
in favor of the motion? Opposed? Delegate
Hardin Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Mr. Chairman,
I do not wish to comment on the merits of
whether or not we ought to vote to re-
consider but on the merits of the amend-
ment itself. It seems to me, most everyone
has directed his attention to the change of
the words "for three months" and substi-
tuting the "closing of registration," but it
seems to me that the amendment has an-
other defect in that it removes the last sen-
tence of section 1 of the Committee Recom-
mendation which allows a person to remain
eligible to vote in state elections. If we re-
move that, then in the illustration which
Delegate Case has given us, if he were
to move from Sparks, Maryland, to Har-
ford County, during the time between the
closing of registration and the time of the
election, he would be effectively disen-
franchised in the State of Maryland, not
only for voting for those local offices, but
for voting for governor and any of the
other statewide offices this constitution will
create, or if it is a presidential election,
voting in that election.
I think that is an important sentence
which ties in with the three-month period
before and I would urge you to defeat the
amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: I am about to flee
from the chamber because of the next to
last speaker but let me answer Delegate
Hardin Marion in this way. I think the
last sentence does not have the effect that
he suggests. It is proper. The last sentence
is perfectly consistent if the three-month
test is left in. You have to have the last
sentence. If you take the three months out
and make the criteria the time for closing
of the registration books, then the point
you are making, Delegate Marion, disap-
pears because if I am a resident in Har-
ford County at the time the books close,
this then qualifies me for all purposes
under the James amendment. So it was
consistent for Senator James to take the
last sentence out.
To put it differently, if the idea is sound
that you should have the right to vote, if
you are a resident at or before the time
the books close, then there is no need for
the last sentence at all,
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