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.

(d) Signatures on a petition for referendum on an Act
or part ofan Act may be signed at any time after the Act
or part ofan Act is passed.

SEC. 4.223 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 peti-
tion 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 pub-
lication 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 tide
of each such measure in such form as to present the purpose

Constitution of Maryland/675

of said measure concisely and intelligently The ballot title
may be distinct from the legislative tide, but in any case the
legislative tide shall be sufficient. Upon each of the ballots,
following the ballot tide 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 Govenor in the manner pre-
scribed widi respect to proposed amendments to the Con-
stitution under Article JffV of diis 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. 6.224 No law, licensing, regulating, prohibiting,
or submitting to local option, the manufacture or sale of
malt or spirituous liquors, shall be referred or repealed
under the provisions of diis Article.

ARTICLE XVII.225

QUADRENNIAL ELECTIONS.

SEC. 1. 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 judi-
cial officers of the State shall construe the provisions of diis
Article so as to effectuate 111311^^56. For the piu^se of
this Article only the word "officers" shall be construed to
include those holding positions and odier places of em-
ployment in the State and county governments whose
terms are fixed by law, but it shall not include any appoint-
ments made by the Board of Public Works, nor appoint-
ments by the Governor for terms of three years.

SEC. 2.227 Vacant.

SEC. 3.228 All State and county officers elected by
qualified voters (except judges of the Circuit Courts, judges
of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, judges of the