732                              Laws of Maryland                      [Ch. 352

comity treasurer, sheriff, register of wills, State's attorney, city sur-
veyor, judges of the orphans' court and clerks of the circuit courts
of the several counties and of the several courts comprising the
Supreme Bench of said city.

(e) The names of all candidates of a political party shall appear
on the ballots in adjacent rows or columns containing generally the
names of candidates nominated by such party. In primary elections
the names of candidates seeking nomination by a particular party
shall be segregated on the voting machines in adjacent rows or col-
umns by parties. In both primary and general elections, the candi-
dates of the majority party shall be placed in the first rows or col-
umns, the principal minority party shall be in the succeeding rows
or columns to be followed by other parties in order of highest voter
registration and independence. , AND THEREAFTER INDE-
PENDENTS.

16-6.

(a)  The ballots shall contain a condensed statement in understand-
able language of every constitutional amendment or other question
to be submitted to the vote of the people at any election. It shall be
sufficient in any case to print the legislative title, a brief summary
of the contents or purpose of the proposed amendment or referendum
unless the act proposing the constitutional amendment or other ques-
tion specifically provides the title to be used. The [Secretary of State]
State Administrative Board of Election Laws shall prepare and
certify the form in which a constitutional amendment or question
shall appear and each amendment or question shall be captioned with
a descriptive title in boldface type containing not more than three
words. A constitutional amendment, or any question to be submitted
to the popular vote, shall be printed on the ballots following the
names of the candidates for office, and in the absence of some other
provisions shall be accompanied by the words "For" and "Against".
The county commissioners, county council, or treasurer of Baltimore
City, as the case may be, shall prepare and certify to the boards the
form in which local questions shall appear on the ballots. In the event
the title of the bill, ordinance or resolution, as the case may be, is
one hundred words or less, the title shall be sufficient. In the event
the title exceeds one hundred words, a summary of the title contain-
ing not in excess of one hundred words shall be prepared and cer-
tified to the boards.

(b)  Each board, in the preparation of ballots, shall follow the
order designated by the [Secretary of Stated State Administrative
Board of Election Laws and shall always place the proposed consti-
tutional amendments and the other State-wide referenda, if any, in
numerical order as indicated. [If there are any local questions or
referenda they shall appear at the top of the ballots and shall be
listed in a sequence to be determined by the county commissioners,
county council or the treasurer of the City of Baltimore, as the case
may be, as follows: (1) by years of sessions of the General Assembly
at which enacted, and for each such session, by chapter numbers of
the session laws of that session and (2) by years of meetings of the
local legislative body at which enacted and for each such meeting
by ordinance or other number of the laws or acts of that meeting.]
Constitutional amendments shall be placed first on the ballots to be
followed by state-wide questions, state-wide referenda and by local