members of either House of the General Assembly. No executive
order reorganizing the Executive Branch shall abolish any office
established by this Constitution or shall change the powers and
duties delegated to particular officers or departments by this
Constitution.

ARTICLE III.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

SECTION 1. The Legislature shall consist of two distinct
branches; a Senate, and a House of Delegates; and shall be
styled the General Assembly of Maryland.

41
SEC. 2. The membership of the Senate shall consist of for-
ty-seven (47) Senators. The membership of the House of Dele-
gates shall consist of one hundred forty-one (141) Delegates.

SEC. 3. The State shall be divided by law into legislative
districts for the election of members of the Senate and the House
of Delegates. Each legislative district shall contain one (1) Sena-
tor and three (3) Delegates. Nothing herein shall prohibit the
subdivision of any one or more of the legislative districts for the
purpose of electing members of the House of Delegates into
three (3) single-member delegate districts or one (1) single-mem-
ber delegate district and one (1) multi-member delegate district.

43
SEC. 4. Each legislative district shall consist of adjoining

territory, be compact in form, and of substantially equal popula-
tion. Due regard shall be given to natural boundaries and the
boundaries of political subdivisions.

44
SEC. 5. Following each decennial census of the United

States and after public hearings, the Governor shall prepare a
plan setting forth the boundaries of the legislative districts for
electing of the members of the Senate and the House of Dele-
gates.

The Governor shall present the plan to the President of the
Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates who shall intro-
duce the Governor's plan as a joint resolution to the Genera]
Assembly, not later than the first day of its regular session in the
second year following every census, and the Governor may call
a special session for the presentation of his plan prior to the reg-
ular session. The plan shall conform to Sections 2, 3 and 4 of
this Article. Following each decennial census the General As-
sembly may by joint resolution adopt a plan setting forth the
boundaries of the legislative districts for the election of members
of the Senate and the House of Delegates, which plan shall con-
form to Sections 2, 3 and 4 of this Article. If a plan has been
adopted by the General Assembly by the 45th day after the
opening of the regular session of the General Assembly in the
second year following every census, the plan adopted by the
General Assembly shall become law. If no plan has been adopt-

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after the opening of the regular session of the General Assembly
in the second year following every census, the Governor's plan
presented to the General Assembly shall become law.

Upon petition of any registered voter, the Court of Appeals
shall have original jurisdiction to review the legislative district-
ing of the State and may grant appropriate relief, if it finds that
the districting of the State is not consistent with requirements of
either the Constitution of the United States of America, or the
Constitution of Maryland.

45
SEC. 6. A member of the General Assembly shall be elect-
ed by the registered voters of the legislative or delegate district
from which he seeks election, to serve for a term of four years
beginning on the second Wednesday of January following his
election.

SEC. 7. The election for Senators and Delegates shall take
place on the Tuesday next, after the first Monday in the month
of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-eight, and in every
fourth year thereafter.

SEC. 8. ⁴⁷ Vacant.

48
SEC. 9, A person is eligible to serve as a Senator or Dele-
gate, who on the date of his election, (1) is a citizen of the State
of Maryland, (2) has resided therein for at least one year next
preceding that dale, and (3) it the district which he has been
chosen to represent has been established for at least six months
prior to the date of his election, has resided in that district for
six months next preceding that date.

If the district which the person has been chosen to represent
has been established less than six months prior to the date of his
election, then, in addition to (1) and (2) above, he shall have re-
sided in the district for as long as it has been established.

A person is eligible to serve as a Senator, if he has attained the
age of twenty-five years, or as a Delegate, if he has attained the
age of twenty-one years, on the date of his election.

SEC. 10. No member of Congress, or person holding any civil,
or military office under the United States, shall be eligible as a
Senator, or Delegate; and if any person shall after his election as
Senator, or Delegate, be elected to Congress, or be appointed to
any office, civil, or military, under the Government of the Unit-
ed States, his acceptance thereof, shall vacate his seat.

49
SEC. 11. No person holding any civil office of profit, or

trust, under this State shall be eligible as Senator or Delegate.

SEC. 12. No Collector, Receiver, or Holder of public money
shall be eligible as Senator or Delegate, or to any office of profit,
or trust, under this State, until he shall have accounted for, and
paid into the Treasury all sums on the books thereof, charged to,