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by Lloyd Taylor. The Chair recognizes
Delegate Key.
DELEGATE KEY: Mr. Chairman and
ladies and gentlemen of the Committee:
There really is no reason to belabor this
amendment very long. It is strictly a
matter of principle. The purpose of this
amendment is to delete from the constitu-
tion any reference to disfranchisement
because of conviction for serious crimes
and to leave this to the General Assembly.
Let them decide the need for an implemen-
tation of such disqualifying of voting.
The reasons for this can be readily seen
in the committee recommendation, or rather
the committee memorandum.
If we look first at page 8 of the com-
mittee memorandum, we see that the Com-
mittee strongly opposes establishing a life
prohibition against the exercise of the
franchise by persons who have paid their
debt to society.
A look at the previous Constitutional
Convention records clearly shows that the
reason for such an item, appearing in the
1867 Constitution, as we know it, was to
punish.
It was stated by delegates then, during
that Constitutional Convention, that peo-
ple who commit crimes ought not have the
right of good citizens, and this was the
basis for including this article in our
present Constitution.
Now, our Committee on Suffrage and
Elections admits that it does not feel the
same as the 1867 Constitutional Conven-
tion delegates, and would not like to
punish twice those who commit serious
crimes, would not like to punish forever
people who do get involved in these mis-
fortunes, but they would continue this
same kind of article.
I go a step further in their report. On
page 7 they admit that it is hard to de-
termine as the years go on what are
serious crimes. Repeatedly the state's at-
torneys have come to Annapolis as the
people in the General Assembly know, to
change different crimes from misdemeanors
to felonies which further disenfranchise
citizens who perhaps the day before the
passage of a new bill permitting a crime
to become a felony would have been per-
mitted to vote.
Because of the changes that are going
on in our society away from punishment to
rehabilitation, the Committee admits in its
section on page 8, lines 2 through 6, that
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if at some time in the future the penal
institutions of the State became truly in-
stitutions for rehabilitation, that it might
be desirable to restore the right to vote
simultaneously with release from an in-
stitution.
They admit that they believe that the
legislature ought to be free to determine
when that situation has arrived.
Now, I say to you that this statement in
their memorandum and the proposed ar-
ticle are really not compatible for if there
is a mandatory provision in this statement
that the General Assembly shall disen-
franchise citizens for serious crimes, then
there is no freedom for them to decide if
such legislation is really necessary.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: Mr. Chairman and
fellow delegates, the Committee felt that
the General Assembly should certainly have
the authority to provide for disqualification
and without a mandatory section in here,
they could very easily provide for no dis-
qualifications.
Now, I submit and I will stand by the
committee memorandum that penal laws
and criminal laws are always in the process
of being revised, and updated, but hope-
fully our penal institutions would be re-
habilitative institutions at some point in-
stead of being merely punitive institutions.
However, without this kind of mandate
it would be impossible for the General As-
sembly to disqualify persons who indulged
in election frauds or who indulged in all
kinds of crimes against the electoral proc-
ess.
I do not think that anybody would deny
that such persons should be removed from
participating in elections. For this reason,
the Committee felt very strongly that there
should be a mandate to the General As-
sembly to establish the basis for disqualifi-
cation, a mandate for disqualification, be-
cause without this it seems to us that the
General Assembly would have no such
authority.
THE CHAIRMAN : Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
Delegate Key?
DELEGATE KEY: It is my under-
standing that the General Assembly does
have in the conduct of elections, the right
to set such laws for residence, uniform
registration, and all other uniform pro-
cedures for voting,
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