136 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND [Art. 11A]

ARTICLE XIA.

LOCAL LEGISLATION. ¹

Section 1. On demand of the Mayor of Baltimore and City Council of
the City of Baltimore, or on petition bearing the signatures of not less than
20% of the registered voters of said City or any County (provided, how-
ever, that in any case 10, 000 signatures shall be sufficient to complete a
petition), the Board of Election Supervisors of said City or County shall
provide at the next general or congressional election, occurring after such
demand or the filing of such petition, for the election of a charter board of
eleven, registered voters' of said City or five registered voters in any such
Counties. Nominations for members for said charter board may be made
not less than forty days prior to said election by the Mayor of Baltimore and
City Council of the City of Baltimore or the County Commissioners of such
County, or not less than twenty days prior to said election by petition bear-
ing the signatures written in their own handwriting (and not by their
mark) of not less than 5% of the registered voters of the said City of Balti-
more or said County; provided, that in any case two thousand signatures of
registered Voters shall be sufficient to complete any such nominating peti-
tion, and if not more than eleven registered voters of the City of Baltimore
or not more than five registered voters in any such County are so nominated
their names shall not be printed on the ballot, but said eleven registered
voters in the City of Baltimore or five in such County shall constitute said
charter board from and after the date of said election. At said election the
ballot shall contain the names of said nominees in alphabetical order with-
out any indication of the source of their nomination, and shall also be so
arranged as to permit the voter to vote for or against the creation of said
charter board, but the vote cast against said creation shall not be held to
bar the voter from expressing his choice among the nominees for said board,
and if the majority of the votes cast for and against the creation of said
charter board shall be against said creation the election of the members of
said charter board shall be void; but if such majority shall be in favor of
the creation of said charter board, then and in that event the eleven nomi-
nees of the City of Baltimore or five nominees in the County receiving the
largest number of votes shall constitute the charter board, and said charter
board, or a majority thereof, shall prepare within six months from the date
of said election a charter or form of government for said city or such county
and present the same to the Mayor of Baltimore or President of the Board
of County Commissioners of such county, who shall publish the same in at
least two newspapers of general circulation published in said the City of
Baltimore or County within thirty days after it shall be reported to him.
Such charter shall be submitted to the voters of said City or County at the
next general or congressional election after the report of said charter to
said Mayor of Baltimore or President of the Board of County Commis-
sioners; and if a majority of the votes cast for and against the adoption of
said charter shall be in favor of such adoption, the said charter from and
after the thirtieth days from the date of such election shall become the law
of said City or County, subject only to the Constitution and Public General
Laws of this State, and any public local laws inconsistent with the pro-
visions of said charter and any former charter of said the City of Balti-
more or County shall be thereby repealed.

¹ This article was added to the Constitution by act of 1914, ch 416, ratified November,
1915.