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because, as Mr. Rybcznski said, we did deal
with such things for approximately eight
weeks. I gave it great thought, and I think
it would be necessary to allow the local
governments a little bit of flexibility, as
well as the General Assembly a little bit of
flexibility in deciding such a problem.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any delegate
desire to speak in favor ?
Delegate Beatrice Miller.
DELEGATE BEATRICE MILLER: If I
may, I would like to ask a question, please,
sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: To whom is the ques-
tion addressed ?
DELEGATE BEATRICE MILLER: To
Delegate Hanson, I guess.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment ?
Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Mr. Chairman,
this is going to be one of my most brief
statements in favor. I only advise the dele-
gates that if they do not vote in favor of it,
they will have a reconsideration of Amend-
ment No. 14.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition?
Delegate Byrnes.
DELEGATE BYRNES: I would say in
response to Delegate Schloeder that I,
contrary to his thinking, do think that his
position is better than this one. I think I
might, as I would hope Delegate Schloeder
would have done, review with you the
thinking of the Committee with regard to
uniformity of election days.
The majority position was to increase the
voter turnout in response to elections. The
higher the turnout the more democratic the
response, as we have said over and over
again. To the extent that elections are rele-
vant to the lives of more people, to that
greater extent will the media, television,
press, etc., give their greater attention to it.
Many small newspapers have their own
favorites. The major metropolitan dailies
will not cover isolated county elections. If
you have a uniformity of date throughout
the State, you will have continuous ex-
change of ideas about governmental policy
and structure. If the county election is not
at the same time as other similar elections,
it will similarly add another election to the
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calendar of the voter and raise all the
other objections we reviewed before.
If you have uniformity of decision on
when people take office at the county level,
it will assist state and national agencies
who have to make policy judgments about
the transmission of funds and the transmis-
sion of ideas, and it will be much better
for them if this information were avail-
able all at one time and they knew who to
speak to.
One of the unfortunate aspects of this
amendment is, I think, that it perhaps gives
a little too much flexibility to the county
structure, which by the simple expedient of
a charter amendment, which we all know is
not viewed with the greatest attention by
the population of the counties, can change
an election date to suit political necessity
at the time. I think this is a very dangerous
move.
I think if elections are held simultane-
ously on different levels of government you
will have, as we described before, the ex-
change of ideas horizontally and vertically.
The emphasis I would like to place is not
so much on what is wrong about this idea
but what is so very right, as we have dis-
cussed over and over again, about uniform-
ity of election dates and years.
I think finally I would point out that if
there is too much freedom granted on the
county level to election dates, you would
put the terms of office in continuous jeop-
ardy.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have less than a
half minute.
DELEGATE BYRNES: In summary, I
think the essence of this proposal is that it
would unsettle settled patterns in the State,
and that the thrust of the suggestions by
both the majority and minority to you was
to establish a uniformity and establish a
permanency. This amendment I think would
jeopardize that. I urge that you reject it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, and ladies and gentlemen, just a brief
word.
It appeared to me this morning that ac-
tually what we had been asking for was
a constitutional exception naming Baltimore
City. When Delegate Dukes raised the point
about Prince George's County being entitled
to a similar consideration, it became quite
obvious that Baltimore City really ought
not, in the interest of good constitutional
practice, ask to be spelled out and dealt
out specifically in the Constitution.
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