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CHAPTER IV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT ELECTION LAWS OF MARYLAND.
I. RESIDENCE.
Having traced the historic development of the election laws, let us
now see what is their present. condition. Legal voters' in Maryland are men
twenty-one years of age, citizens of the United States, who have resided for
one year in the State and for six months in the county or legislative
district
of Baltimore city, and no«• reside in the ward or election district, where
they
attempt to vote. Concerning this question of residence,' there are three
interesting recent decisions of the Court of Appeals. The circumstances of
`the first decision, rendered in 1890, are as follows: Gilbert,' a colored
man,
born in Harford county, lived there until twenty-one years of age. He then
entered Morgan College in Baltimore as a student, and remained there for
seven years, spending his summer vacations as a waiter at pleasure resorts.
He supported himself and only returned to Harford county for a brief yearly
visit to relatives. He had registered in that county, when twenty-one, but
had never voted there. After his removal to Baltimore, he transferred his
registration to that city and voted there. His right to vote in Baltimore
was
questioned, but the Court affirmed it, saying: "The word ` residence,' as
used
in the Constitution, does not mean one's permanent place of abode, where he
intends to live all his days, nor for an indefinite or unlimited time, nor
does
it mean one's residence for a temporary purpose, with the intention of
returning to his former residence, when that purpose shall have been accom-
plished; but means one's actual home, in the sense of having no other home,
whether he means to reside there. permanently, or for a definite or
indefinite
length of time. As in domicile, one's original residence is the residence of
his father at the time of his birth ; but, when he reaches the age of
twenty-
one years, being sui jrris, he may abandon his original residence, and
acquire
a new residence, and to acquire such residence one must remove to this
State,
or, being an actual resident of the State, he must remove from one county to
another, with the bona ode intention of abandoning his former place of resi-
~ence and of making this State or the county, to which he removes, his
actual
(1) Const, art. I, sec. I. Persons of unsound mind, those convicted of •`
infamous crime " and not pardoned, and
those convicted of bribery or fraudulent voting, are disranchised. Art. I,
sets. 2, 3.
(2) Loss of residence is discussed later, uner "registration."
(3) Schaefer vs. Gilbert, 73 Md. Repts., 86.
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