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DELEGATE BOROM: Mr. Chairman, I
think I would object to having the "gen-
eral public" removed from the amendment
we have before us.
THE CHAIRMAN: Very well, Delegate
Barrick. Will you have someone prepare
the printed amendment as soon as possible?
Delegate Rybczynski?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Is this an
appropriate time to speak against this
whole mess?
THE CHAIRMAN: If by "whole mess"
you mean Amendment No. 21, it is a proper
time to speak in opposition to the amend-
ment.
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Mr. Chair-
man, as I indicated earlier, we went over
these same questions that the other dele-
gates are now shooting at each other for
nine weeks. We went into the question of
trying to set up election within each county
at any time that the county wanted. Our
decision was a result of the advice given us
by many witnesses and the collective opin-
ion of the majority of the Committee. I
might add that the very same argument
that Delegate Hanson gave this very morn-
ing in this same room does not support his
own amendment.
He talked this morning about trying to
put candidates in a position where they
would be visible. We have tried to do this
by making all county and city elections all
the same day so that all elections would
get plenty of visibility, attention and
publicity.
I do not know what this thing here is
designed to do. My opinion is that it is de-
signed to lessen participation and to lessen
visibility. All of a sudden everybody has
forgotten about this theory that we heard
so much about during the legislative article
discussions.
Now, I might further add, just as Dele-
gate Barrick has pointed out by his at-
tempt to amend that when we were discuss-
ing the legislative article here, I thought
we were talking about eliminating local
legislation. Now we are throwing local leg-
islation right back into the General Assem-
bly. The whole thing, I will again say, is a
mess.
You are right where we were on the first
day of our first committee meeting, and
you are going to be meeting for nine weeks
trying to resolve all these same problems.
Maybe you will want us to bring our wit-
nesses in. We will bring them in so they
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can talk to you about the same problems
now.
I would strongly suggest that all these
amendments to the amendments to the
amendments be thrown out, and that you
accept the Committee Recommendation. It
is a good one.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
Delegate Scanlan.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: May I use my
time in support of the amendment to re-
capitulate.
The Committee's original proposal that
the county elections be held in the odd-
numbered years was rejected when we
adopted Mr. Byrnes' amendment. His was
the second alternative that the county elec-
tions would be held with state elections,
except that the City of Baltimore would be
given the privilege of holding its election
in the odd-numbered years.
Obviously there is a great unhappiness
with the Byrnes amendment. As Delegate
Gallagher put it, it is not very sound con-
stitutional drafting to single out any area
of the State for an exception.
There is a third alternative, and that is
the alternative proposed by Delegate Needle
in an amendment that has not yet been
printed which would freeze into the consti-
tution the requirement that the county
elections and state elections be held at the
same time.
The fourth alternative is the one before
you in the form of Amendment No. 21. I
concede that it is too wordy. I concede that
it is too lengthy. I firmly believe that the
whole idea could be summarized in one
clause, but I am afraid we are too far down
the track for that.
The Committee on Suffrage and Elections
has seen fit to bring in a detailed article
and has raised this sort of problem. I am
sorry that I and the sponsors of the amend-
ment argue in favor of flexibility and dis-
agree with the arguments of the Committee
in favor of freezing into the constitution
a particular manner of holding the county
elections.
I am very sorry to disagree with my
learned colleague, but I do think the issues
under all four alternatives have been de-
bated ad nauseum, now, for about three
hours. I think that if we can get a vote on
this "mess", as Delegate Rybczynski refers
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