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The question arises on adoption of
Amendment No. 1 to Committee Recom-
mendation GP-7.
A vote Aye is a vote in favor of Amend-
ment No. 1. A vote No is a vote against.
Cast your votes.
Has every delegate voted? Does any dele-
gate desire to change his vote?
(There was no response.)
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 47 votes in the affirmative
and 80 in the negative, the motion is lost.
The amendment is rejected.
Are there any further amendments to
Committee Recommendation GP-7?
Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Mr. Chairman,
I wonder if I might ask one question of
the Chairman of the Committee with re-
gard to the last sentence of the proposal.
THE CHAIRMAN: State the question.
DELEGATE CHABOT: I wonder if the
"unless otherwise provided" clause on line
17 is intended to apply only to the effective
date or whether it is intended to authorize
the General Assembly also to change the
required vote that is intended in order to
ratify an amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Do you understand
the question, Delegate Boyer?
DELEGATE BOYER: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Boyer.
DELEGATE BOYER: The intention was
to apply only to the effective date.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: So it would be
as if it had read "unless a later effective
date is provided" and so forth.
THE CHAIRMAN : It could be an earlier
effective date presumably.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Unless a dif-
ferent effective date.
THE CHAIRMAN: Will the Chairman of
the Committee on Style note the questions
and answers with respect to the last ques-
tion and answer of Committee Recommen-
dation GP-7. Are you ready for the ques-
tion?
(Call for the question.)
The Clerk will ring the quorum bell.
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The question arises on the adoption of
Committee Recommendation GP-7.
A vote Aye is a vote in favor of the
recommendation. A vote No is a vote
against. Cast your votes.
Has every delegate voted? Does any dele-
gate desire to change his vote?
(T fiere was no response.)
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 128 votes in the affirmative
and none in the negative, the motion
carries. Committee Recommendation GP-7
is adopted.
The next item on the agenda is considera-
tion of Committee Recommendation GP-8.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Boyer,
Chairman of the Committee.
DELEGATE BOYER: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Committee of
the Whole, GP-8, next in our package of
General Provisions Committee recommen-
dations, is, as one delegate already said,
more or less a companion bill, which would
follow the natural sequence with GP-7 we
just voted upon. GP-8 deals with the
proper method of calling a new constitu-
tion convention the same way we have
been organized here. I would direct your
attention perhaps to the meat or thrust of
the whole GP-8. It would be in the first
sentence "The General Assembly may by
law call a constitutional convention at any
time or at any time submit to the voters
of the State the question of calling a con-
stitutional convention."
We felt there was a need of the first
sentence giving the General Assembly the
authority to call the convention. We learned
the authority for calling the convention
was probably inherent in the state legisla-
ture and there were several Court of Ap-
peals cases in Maryland on this point. We
found that thirty-eight state constitutions
provide for the calling of a convention, and
all except one of the remaining states have
called conventions at one time or another.
However, we felt this principle had
been the cause for great dispute requiring
sometimes court adjudication. We felt we
should spell out not just inherent power of
the legislature to call the convention but
spell it out in our present constitution, be-
cause the inherent power of the legislature
to call the convention may be dependent
upon other constitutional provisions such
as the declaration that all government
emanates from the people and may be
changed by the people. We felt this specific
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