THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: You open up
a great many problems then, it seems to
me.
THE CHAIRMAN: This is a period for
questions. Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: I was going to an-
swer Delegate Bennett's question. I do not
know whether that is appropriate or not.
DELEGATE KOSS: I would appreciate
it if one of you did.
THE CHAIRMAN: I think Delegate
Koss would like to have an answer.
DELEGATE CASE: In the case you
cited, the item would not be referable.
There are only two ways the appropriation
could be made, either in the budget bill,
which is not referable, or in the supple-
merital appropriation bill. That is not re-
ferable because it must carry a tax to
support the appropriation; so in either
event that type of a matter is not refer-
able today, and never has been.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any other
questions? Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Delegate Koss,
directing your attention to your recom-
mendation, Section 4, under the presently
existing constitutional provisions, what
verification is there as a matter of prac-
tice or procedure before a petition law is
placed on the ballot for referendum as to
whether or not the required number of
signatures had been obtained, whether or
not those persons are, in fact, registered
voters, and whether or not no more than
one-half come from any one political sub-
division.
DELEGATE KOSS: As you know, un-
der the present law, the present constitu-
tional provision and its implementation,
signatures are delivered to the Secretary
of State, at which time whoever delivers
them indicates how many signatures are
included in terms of numbers and distribu-
tion. Unless there is any challenge, there is
usually no normal procedure for verifying
any of the facts. If any of the signatures
are challenged and are found to be want-
ing, then the burden of proving all of the
elements, the legitimacy of the signatures,
the residence, numbers, et cetera, are put
upon the gatherer of the petition; but until
there is a challenge, at the moment, there
is no great effort spent at verification. In
terms of the signatures themselves, no one
initiates any check to see whether they
are in fact bona fide voters. |
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Does the chal-
lenge you speak of come from the Secre-
tary of State, or does it come from the
Office of the Attorney General or must it
come from some other interested citizen?
DELEGATE KOSS: It does not have to
come from any one of those places, but it
can be initiated by any.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Has your study
of this particular problem indicated
whether, and if so, how many times chal-
lenges have been made to the validity of
the constitutional requirements, and were
sustained?
DELEGATE KOSS: We do not have
any figures on that offhand. I can say that
at some point, representatives of the At-
torney General's Office who testified before
us, said that they were hard put to find one
which they felt was bona fide. I cannot
give you any answer at this point on the
number that were found wanting in terms
of the signatures or the distribution.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Do I understand
your last answer to mean that in almost
every petition where a law has been placed
on referendum, that it would be the opinion
of the Attorney General that the petition
requirements were not met?
DELEGATE KOSS: I would hesitate to
put it in that strong language.
DELEGATE MARION: Was that the
thrust of what you were saying?
DELEGATE KOSS: Generally, yes.
DELEGATE MARION: Thank you very
much.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any other
questions? Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Madam Chair-
man, with reference to your Section 2, you
nevertheless contemplate that as suggested
in the local government section 7.02 that
where a referendum is provided specifically
of less than statewide impact, that same
law may still be subject to the statewide
referendum, do you not?
In other words, to simplify the question,
where the General Assembly has provided
for the alteration of boundaries of a county,
and a special referendum or mandatory
referendum is built into any such law, that |
