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SEC. 2.216 No law enacted by the General Assembly shall take
effect until the first day of June next after the session at which it
may be passed, unless it contains a Section declaring such law an
emergency law and necessary for the immediate preservation of
the public health or safety and is passed upon a'yea and nay vote
supported by three-fifths of all the members elected to each of the
two Houses of the General Assembly. The effective date of a law
other than an emergency law may be extended as provided in
Section 3 (b) hereof. If before said first day of June there shall
have been filed with the Secretary of the State a petition to refer
to a vote of the people any law or part of a law capable of
referendum, as in this Article provided, the same shall be referred
by the Secretary of State to such vote, and shall not become a law
or take effect until thirty days after its approval by a majority of
the electors voting thereon at the next ensuing election held
throughout the State for Members of the House of Representa-
tives of the United States. An emergency law shall remain in force
notwithstanding such petition, but shall stand repealed thirty
days after having been rejected by a majority of the qualified
electors voting thereon. No measure creating or abolishing any
office, or changing the salary, term or duty of any officer, or
granting any franchise or special privilege, or creating any vested
right or interest, shall be enacted as an emergency law. No law
making any appropriation for maintaining the State Government,
or for maintaining or aiding any public institution, not exceeding
the next previous appropriation for the same purpose, shall be
subject to rejection or repeal under this Section. The increase in
any such appropriation for maintaining or aiding any public
institution shall only take effect as in the case of other laws, and
such increase or any part thereof specified in the petition, may be
referred to a vote of the people upon petition.
SEC. 3.217 (a) The referendum petition against an Act or part of
an Act passed by the General Assembly, shall be sufficient if
signed by three percent of the qualified voters of the State of
Maryland, calculated upon the whole number of votes cast for
Governor at the last preceding Gubernatorial election, of whom
not more than half are residents of Baltimore City, or of any one
County. However, any Public Local Law for any one County or
the City of Baltimore, shall be referred by the Secretary of State
only to the people of the County or City of Baltimore, upon a
referendum petition of ten percent of the qualified voters of the
County or City of Baltimore, as the case may be, calculated upon
the whole number of votes cast respectively for Governor at the
last preceding Gubernatorial election.
(b) If more than one-third, but less than the full number of
signatures required to complete any referendum petition against
any law passed by the General Assembly, be filed with the
Secretary of State before the first day of June, the time for the law
to take effect and for filing the remainder of signatures to
complete the petition shall be extended to the thirtieth day of the
same month, with like effect.
If an Act is passed less than 45 days prior to June 1, it may not
become effective sooner than 31 days after its passage. To bring
this Act to referendum, the first one-third of the required number
of signatures to a petition shall be submitted within 30 days after
its passage. If the first one-third of the required number of
signatures is submitted to the Secretary of State within 30 days
after its passage, the time for the Act to take effect and for filing
the remainder of the signatures to complete the petition shall be
extended for an additional 30 days.
(c) In this Article, "pass" or "passed" means any final action
upon any Act or part of an Act by both Houses of the General
Assembly; and "enact" or "enacted" means approval of an Act or
part of an Act by the Governor.
'"Amended by Chapter 681, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7, 1978.
217 Amended by Chapter 548, Acts of 1976, ratified Nov. 2,1976. Sec.
3(a) previously amended by Chapter 6, Acts of 1962, ratified Nov. 6,
1962.
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Constitution of Maryland/709
(d) Signatures on a petition for referendum on an Act or part of
an Act may be signed at any time after the Act or part of an Act
is passed.
SEC. 4.2" A petition may consist of several papers, but each
paper shall contain the full text, or an accurate summary
approved by the Attorney General, of the Act or part of Act
petitioned. There shall be attached to each paper of signatures
filed with a petition an affidavit of the person procuring those
signatures that the signatures were affixed in his presence and
that, based upon the person's best knowledge and belief, every
signature on the paper is genuine and bona fide and that the
signers are registered voters at the address set opposite or below
their names. The General Assembly shall prescribe by law the
form of the petition, the manner for verifying its authenticity, and
other administrative procedures which facilitate the petition
process and which are not in conflict with this Article.
SEC. 5. (a) The General Assembly shall provide for furnishing
the voters of the State the text of all measures to be voted upon by
the people; provided, that until otherwise provided by law the
same shall be published in the manner prescribed by Article XIV
of the Constitution for the publication of proposed Constitutional
Amendments.
(b) All laws referred under the provisions of this Article shall be
submitted separately on the ballots to the voters of the people, but
if containing more than two hundred words, the full text shall not
be printed on the official ballots, but the Secretary of State shall
prepare and submit a ballot title of each such measure in such
form as to present the purpose of said measure concisely and
intelligently. The ballot title may be distinct from the legislative
title, but in any case the legislative title shall be sufficient. Upon
each of the ballots, following the ballot title or text, as the case
may be, of each such measure, there shall be printed the words
"For the referred law" and "Against the referred law," as the
case may be. The votes cast for and against any such referred law
shall be returned to theGovernorin the manner prescribed with
respect to proposed amendments to the Constitution under
Article XIV of this Constitution, and the Governor shall
proclaim the result of the election, and, if it shall appear that the
majority of the votes cast on any such measure were cast in favor
thereof, the Governor shall by his proclamation declare the same
having received a majority of the votes to have been adopted by
the people of Maryland as a part of the laws of the State, to take
effect thirty days after such election, and in like manner and with
like effect the Governor shall proclaim the result of the local
election as to any Public Local Law which shall have been
submitted to the voters of any County or of the City of Baltimore.
SEC. 6.219 No law, licensing, regulating, prohibiting, or submit-
ting to local option, the manufacture or sale of malt or spirituous
liquors, shall be referred or repealed under the provisions of this
Article.
ARTICLE XVII.220
QUADRENNIAL ELECTIONS.
SEC. I.221 The purpose of this Article is to reduce the number
of elections by providing that all State and county elections shall
be held only in every fourth year, and at the time provided by law
for holding congressional elections, and to bring the terms of
appointive officers into harmony with the changes effected in the
time of the beginning of the terms of elective officers. The
administrative and judicial officers of the State shall construe the
provisions of this Article so as to effectuate that purpose. For the
""Amended by Chapter 548, Acts of 1976, ratified Nov. 2, 1976;
Chapter 849, Acts of 1982, ratified Nov. 2, 1982.
"'Amended by Chapter 681, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7, 1978.
220 Added by Chapter 227, Acts of 1922, ratified Nov. 7, 1922.
221 Originally Article XVII, sec. 11, transferred and amended by
Chapter 681, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7, 1978.
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