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 Representatives 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shall stand repealed thirty days after having been rejected by a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 maintain-
ing the State Government, or for maintaining or aiding any pub-
lic 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 main-
taining 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. (a) The referendum petition against an Act or
part of an Act passed by the General Assembly, shall be suffi-
cient 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 Secre-
tary of State only to the people of the County or City of Balti-
more, 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 Sec-
retary of State before the first day of June, the time for the law
to take effect and for filing the remainder of signatures to com-
plete 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 num-
ber 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.

(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.

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SEC. 4. A petition may consist of several papers, but each

paper shall contain the full text, or an accurate summary ap-
proved by the Attorney General, of the Act or part of Act peti-
tioned. There shall be attached to each paper of signatures filed
with a petition an affidavit of the person procuring those signa-
tures that the signatures were affixed in his presence and that,

based upon the person's best knowledge and belief, every signa-
ture 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 Consti-
tutional Amendments.

(b) All laws referred under the provisions of this Article shall
be submitted separately on the ballots to the voters of the peo-
ple, 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 mea-
sure in such form as to present the purpose of said measure con-
cisely and intelligently. The ballot title may be distinct from the
legislative title, but in any case the legislative title shall be suffi-
cient. 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 the Governor in the man-
ner prescribed with respect to proposed amendments to the Con-
stitution under Article XIV of this Constitution, and the Gover-
nor 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 proclama-
tion 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 pro-
claim 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.

219
SEC. 6. No law, licensing, regulating, prohibiting, or sub-
mitting to local option, the manufacture or sale of malt or spirit-
uous liquors, shall be referred or repealed under the provisions
of this Article.

ARTICLE XVII. ²²⁰

QUADRENNIAL ELECTIONS.

SEC. 1. The purpose of this Article is to reduce the num-
ber 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 ef-
fected in the time of the beginning of the terms of elective of-
ficers. The administrative and judicial officers of the State shall
construe the provisions of this Article so as to effectuate that
purpose. For the purpose of this Article only the word "officers"
shall be construed to include those holding positions and other
places of employment in the State and county governments
whose terms are fixed by law, but it shall not include any ap-
pointments made by the Board of Public Works, nor appoint-
ments by the Governor for terms of three years.