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in the next session of the legislature, it
will be impossible for Marylanders of both
parties to express their preference in a
presidential primary or to elect their dele-
gates to the state convention.
They have provided that the state central
commitee of the parties can name the dele-
gates to the state convention. But I submit
to you that that is not the democratic pro-
cess. The democratic process is for every
person in his party to express his prefer-
ence not only for the delegate to the state
convention, but to express his preference
for a presidential candidate of his party.
If we put this amendment in, as I said,
it does not change any provision or alter
S&E-2, it just adds to it.
Someone said, well, this can be done by
the legislature, and I will gTant you that,
but in this year unless the legislature does
act, we are without our presidential pri-
mary and have no provision for the election
of the delegates to the state convention.
Those delegates are very important because
those delegates to the state convention, as
you well know, name the delegates to the
National Convention.
If we in the Democratic Party and you in
the Republican Party are going to sit idly
by and let some leaders tell us what wo
want and what we shall have, then I think
we are losing our right as voters. We are
losing our party spirit, and it is something,
my friends, that I do not want to see go
down the river. I do think it is very im-
portant that we mandate in our constitu-
tion that in any presidential year the legis-
lature shall set the date of the primary
sufficiently early in that year, that we can
elect our delegates to the state convention,
and that the state convention can be held in
ample time prior to the calling of the na-
tional convention.
Thank you very much. I hope you adopt
this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: Mr. Chairman, and
members of the Committee, while the Com-
mittee did have some proposals before it to
set the primary at a specific date, we never
had any proposals that would set a primary,
only one out of every four years, at a special
time.
However, I would like to point out that
it seems to me any action by this Committee
of the whole to put the primary back into
the constitution would invalidate or at least
give great question to the action you took
this morning in terms of eliminating the
application of pluralities.
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Third, I would like to suggest that this
is, and I think Delegate Weidemeyer has to
agree, within the province of the legislature
and properly so. I would disagree with him
that I give up my rights as a voter if I do
delegate this to the legislature. I would
assume a legislator is as responsive as we
are to the wishes of his constituents. Thank
you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Any other delegate
desire to speak in favor?
Delegate Boileau.
DELEGATE BOILEAU: Mr. Chairman,
fellow delegates, in regard to the points
that Delegate Weidemeyer made, may 1
add one more point of information. In re-
cent weeks the Harris Poll has shown that
the people of the United States prefer to
see Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Rockefeller meet
in November of 1968 and yet it seems the
convention delegates supposedly will nomi-
nate two other gentlemen.
There is only one way we could really
know how the people of Maryland feel
about this. That is the way Delegate
Weidemeyer suggested. I am in favor of
the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Any delegate desire
to speak in opposition? Delegate Frederick.
DELEGATE FREDERICK: Really I have
no personal preference here except one. I
have not been able to figure out how we
can do what this amendment provides for
without having two elections in the spring.
In May we are going to have a statewide
election concerning this new constitution.
Then we will have to have another statewide
election to provide the delegates to the
Convention. Unless we can come up with
some way to combine the two, confusion
seems likely. We would have two general
elections in May or possibly June because
the national convention is usually held in
July. I would say this does complicate it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Any other delegate
desire to speak in favor of the amendment?
Delegate Winslow.
DELEGATE WINSLOW: Mr. Chairman,
I should like very much to speak in favor
of this amendment because it seems to me
highly desirable that we have as voters a
chance to express our opinion with respect
to candidates for the presidency and what
is even more important to elect our own
delegates to party conventions rather than
to have them selected by central committees
who have very little, if any, responsibility
to the voters.
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