2198                                Municipal Charters

739A. Absentee registration and re-registration and ballot for members
of the Armed Forces.

(A)    It is declared to be the purpose of said municipal corporation
in enacting this Resolution, to provide that absentee residents of said
municipality, as herein defined, at the time of any election, as herein de-
fined, shall be given the right and every possible opportunity to register
and vote by mail in any such election to the full extent permitted by the
Constitution of the State; and, further to protect such absentee residents
in the exercise of those rights, and to correlate insofar as the Constitution
of the United States and the Constitution of this State permit, the provi-
sions of this Resolution with all acts of Congress and of this State relating
to voting by mail by such absentee residents, and to permit and facilitate
the general operation of this State and municipality and its election officials
and commissions with every department, commission or agency of the
United States and of the State of Maryland to which the carrying out of
the provisions of such Act of Congress and of the Legislature of the State
of Maryland may be delegated and committed.

Absentee resident:

(B)    An "absentee resident" means a resident of said municipality,
(1) qualified to vote under its Charter as to age, citizenship, and length of
residence, and not disenfranchised because of crime, and (2) who is absent
and engaged in the Military or Naval Services of the United States, and
their spouses, members of the Merchants Marine who are absent, and their
spouses, and all civilians who are employees and are absent, and their
spouses, and such absentee residents who are serving with the Red Cross,
the Society of Friends, and their spouses, as well as all those honorably
discharged from the Armed Forces of the United States too late to register
or vote.

Absentee Registration:

(C)    Any member of the Armed Forces as heretofore defined in this
section, who is not registered to vote in an election of said municipality,
may upon application on a form to be prepared by the Board of Registra-
tion, be allowed to register or re-register by absentee certification. Such
absentee certification shall be issued by the Board of Registration upon
said application being acted upon favorably by said Board. Such regis-
tration or re-registration shall be done within the specified time allowed
for all other registration or re-registration within said municipality.

Absentee Voting:

(D)    Every absentee resident of said municipality shall be entitled
to vote at any election in the manner hereafter provided.

At any time before any election, any absentee resident of said munici-
pality who has reason to believe that because of his status as such he will
be unable to vote in person at such election, may make application in
writing to said municipality requesting that he be sent an absentee ballot.
Such application shall be signed by the applicant and shall disclose the
applicant's full name and last home address in said municipality, the
address to which the absentee ballot shall be sent, and that he is in the
Armed Services of the United States, or otherwise has a status which
entitles him or her to vote as an absentee resident. As soon as the appli-
cation is received, The Board of Registration shall mail the applicant an
absentee ballot provided in Section 245 of Article 33 of the Annotated Code