sixty days is the time which this Conven-
tion establishes for the gathering of sig-
natures, and the petition requirement is
five percent, then almost 760 signatures
would have to be collected every day. In
1980 almost 1,300 signatures would have
to be collected every day. This would almost
be an impossible number for any group or
organization to collect—every day for sixty
days.
It must be remembered that the signers
of a petition do not decide whether or not
an act of the legislature is approved or not.
The petition only shows that a consider-
able portion of the people desire to vote on
an issue. The final decision remains in the
hands of the people throughout the State
of Maryland.
Since the remainder of the Committee
proposal insures that a considerable num-
ber of the people must vote on the issue in
order for it to be rejected, we sincerely
recommend that the Convention reject the
suggested five percent petition signature
requirement and instead retain the present
three percent requirement.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any ques-
tions for the purposes of clarification? Dele-
gate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: Just one matter
of information, Delegate Hutchinson.
How many states require as little as
three percent for referendum or less than
three percent?
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Out of
the twenty-two states that have referen-
dum, the great majority, I believe all but
two if I am not mistaken require more than
three percent.
DELEGATE KOSS: None less?
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Three
percent less. I am sorry. Three require
three percent or less. That is only two.
DELEGATE HOPKINS: Is your answer
only two, Maryland and one other state re-
quire three percent or less?
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: That is
right, two others, as pointed out.
We must remember that we are not writ-
ing a constitution for another state but we
are writing it for the State of Maryland,
and 80,000 signatures—in 1980, which is
only thirteen years away, would be an ex-
cessive amount. |
THE CHAIRMAN: Any other questions?
If not, Delegate Hutchinson presents a
formal amendment to the members of the
Committee of the Whole. The clerk will
read the amendment. This is Amendment
No. 8.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 8
to Committee Recommendation S&E-I by
Delegates Byrnes, Hutchinson and Ryb-
czynski: On page 2, line 3 of Committee
Recommendation No. S&E-I strike out the
figure "the numeral five" and insert in lieu
thereof the figure "numeral three".
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss. This
is under control.
Delegate Hutchinson.
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Mr.
Chairman, before I delegate time to several
individuals, I would like to only add this to
my report: to date we have reduced the
number of representatives in the General
Assembly. We have told the people of the
state that they have the right to elect only
one delegate; thus that they have now only
one delegate who they can expect to an-
swer directly to them, thus no matter how
we look at the representation, it has been
reduced, even if in no other way but by
numbers. Since we have reduced repre-
sentation, it is imperative that we allow
the people some method of self-government.
This must be in the form of referendum.
If we make the referendum more difficult
than it is at present, we are again limiting
the voice of the people.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does Delegate
Hutchinson wish to delegate any of his
time or allocate any of his time to others?
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Yes. I
would like to give three minutes to Delegate
Rybczynski.
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI:Mr. Chair-
man, I will not delay this by three min-
utes. I will make a couple of points and
do it fast.
Number one, the proponents of raising
the percentage have shown no abuse of the
three percent figure which now exists. In
fact, they did not even show abuse at 10,-
000 signatures, which was the law before
the three percent.
Number two, to those of you who feel
that securing 28,000 or 35,000 or 45,000
signatures is an easy thing, you should
talk to a private citizen in the City of
Baltimore by the name of Arthur Sher-
wood who, after a year of campaigning, |
