nor, or, if passed by the General
Assembly over the veto of the
Governor."
The article originally provided that
petitions on statewide acts must contain
10,000 signatures; however, this was
amended by Chapter 6 of the Acts of
1962 and ratified November 6, 1962.
It now provides that the petition on a
statewide act be signed by three per cent
of the qualified voters of the State cal-
culated from the number of votes cast
for governor at the last gubernatorial
election. Not more than half of those
signing can be residents of Baltimore
City or any one county. If the act ap-
plies only to Baltimore City or any one
county, then the petition must contain
ten per cent of the number of votes cast
for governor in that unit.
In order to give the people an oppor-
tunity to prepare a petition, laws passed
by the General Assembly and signed by
the governor do not take effect until the
first day of June. If half the signatures
are presented to the secretary of state
by that date, the petitioners have the
remainder of the month to produce the
signatures required to complete the
petition.
The words in Section 1 of Article
XVI limit the power of referendum only
to acts approved by the governor, or
passed by the General Assembly over
the veto of the governor. Signatures on
the petition cannot be obtained prior
to the time a measure is passed by the
General Assembly and signed by the
governor. Traditionally, bills presented
to the governor after the legislature ad-
journs must be signed by May 7. In
such cases, a party interested in bring-
ing the measure to referendum has only
25 days in which to obtain half the
required signatures.
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The time when bills are presented to
the governor, known as "presentment,"
has been defined by the courts as more
than mere 'delivery. It is the formal act
whereby the great seal is affixed and the
bill is ceremoniously handed over to the
governor.7 The Maryland Code pro-
vides that a bill after passage shall "as
soon thereafter as practicable ... be ...
presented to the governor for his ap-
proval."8 "Practicable" has been con-
strued to mean practicable for the
proper consideration by the governor
rather than practicable for officials of
the legislature.9
Under this view, the governor can
determine when a bill will be presented
to him. If he were to decide to have a
bill that was passed early in the session
presented to him May 1 and then wait
until May 7 to sign or veto it, he would
significantly shorten the time in which
an interested party could circulate a
petition.
Presentation of the petition suspends
operation of an act until 30 days after
it has been voted upon. If the act is an
emergency measure which goes into
effect immediately, the petition does not
suspend its operation. It will continue
in effect and will stand repealed if it
receives an adverse vote at the polls.
Two types of legislation are expressly
excepted from the operation of this
article. Appropriation measures are not
subject to referendum unless they ex-
ceed the previous appropriation made
for the same purpose, and then only
that amount in excess of the prior
7 Richards Furniture Corp. v. Board, 233
Md. 249,261-62 (1963).
8Mo. code ann. art. 41, § 45 (1965).
9Robey v. Broersma, 181 Md. 325, 341
(1942).
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