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The Chair has not seen the amendment,
so it is hard to say for sure. It has not
reached here yet.
Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: Mr. Chairman,
based upon the indication of the Chair to
my parliamentary inquiry a few moments
ago, as soon as the amendment is printed,
and I understand it is being printed at the
present time, Delegates Raley, Scanlan and
myself wish to offer it as a substitute for
the pending question.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
Delegate Byrnes, do you accept Delegate
Macdonald's suggested amendment? I un-
derstood that you did.
DELEGATE BYRNES: I do, sir.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
I think it is a necessary amendment, ac-
tually, and if there is unanimous approval,
that change can be made.
Delegate Schloeder.
DELEGATE SCHLOEDER: Mr. Chair-
man, I just want to make it clear that, as
has already been hinted, the Raley amend-
ment will not be acceptable to the Commit-
tee, and I do not think that it goes to the
substance of the issue. I think that it is
basically an attempt to come to some sort
of compromise, but a compromise not based
upon substantive issues. We would not be
in a position to support that amendment.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
The Chair will announce that the first part
of Amendment No. 14 has been modified as
has been agreed to, and that adds "except
in Baltimore City", as I understand it.
Is that right, Delegate Macdonald?
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Yes, Mr.
Chairman.
As I understand it, Mr. Chairman, on
line 3 of Amendment No. 14 after the word
"county" and before the quotation marks
we would add the words "except Baltimore
City".
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
This has been agreed to and has been
accepted.
This is the way the amendment reads as
modified : "The General Election shall be
held on the Tuesday next after the first
Monday in November, 1970, and every
fourth year thereafter, at which time state
and county officials except in Baltimore
City shall be elected."
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Is that not right?
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Yes, Mr.
Chairman, and I think your style improved
a little bit.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
Delegate Raley's amendment has reached
here, and the Chair rules that would be in
order after the vote on this amendment.
Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: I would like
to speak in opposition to the first section
of the amendment as amended, and that is
along the line of opposing the separation
of Baltimore City and its elections from
those being held in the counties.
Contrary to my good friend Delegate
Dukes and the persuasiveness of anything
he has to say whenever he has an oppor-
tunity to say it, I do feel that the popula-
tion growth in Prince George's County is
rapidly approximating that of Baltimore
City. We are now 600,000, and Baltimore
City is 900,000. By another ten years we
will probably be 900,000 and no one can
guess what the population of Baltimore
City will be at that time.
However, our problems will be one and
the same. The problem mentioned here by
Delegate Boyce of the practicalities of com-
bining the state and county elections is
such that there will not be enough room
on the machine to put all the names. We
had that very same problem at our last
election in Prince George's County where
there were so many names on the ballot
that you simply did not know who the in-
dividual was behind the name, and that will
continue unless we adopt this means of
separating the two.
Now, there is one other thought that I
would like to pass on. We are sincerely
endeavoring to bring a working relation-
ship into existence between Baltimore City
and the counties. It is harmful to the best
interests of both units to have continued
this separation of feeling between county
and city. A precedent was set when Mayor
D'Alesandro came to Montgomery County
a few days ago for the sole purpose of
explaining to the people of that county the
problems of Baltimore City and why it was
to their best interests that they contribute
toward the solution of those problems in
Baltimore City. It is that kind of effort
that I think would be furthered if the city
elections and county elections were held on
the same day.
The Baltimore Sun is still read through-
out the counties even though it has been
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