upper area of the Shore a sufficient ma-
jority in any one county to elect people
from that county for four slots. I believe
that there is a built-in residual vote in
each of the counties that will in the course
of nature take care of a good bit of this.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sollins.
DELEGATE SOLLINS: If we had 144
delegates in the house in 1970, how many
counties would have a delegate?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: In all proba-
bility every county would have a delegate.
I do not by this pretend to say that every
county will have a delegate.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sollins.
DELEGATE SOLLINS: As I see the
figures, and I want to get clarified, If I am
wrong, Delegate Gilchrist, at 144 members
in the House, eight counties will still not
have enough people in them to justify a
delegate. Is that correct or incorrect?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: This is in-
correct.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any
further questions?
DELEGATE SOLLINS: Mr. Chairman,
I just dispute the figures.
THE CHAIRMAN: This is just a ques-
tion period. You can dispute the figures in
the debate period. Are there any further
questions?
Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Delegate Gil-
christ, would you tell us what would be
the range of populations in the districts?
What would be the population of the
smallest and what of the largest?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: I can tell
you precisely in senatorial districts. You
understand this was not done with census
tract maps. This was done on an estimated
population basis, so we have the 1970 esti-
mate. The low group in the senatorial dis-
trict is 102.000 in Washington County. The
high in it is 114,000 in the combination of
Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's Counties.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any
further questions?
Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: The average
is 110,800.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Would it be |
fair to assume then that your proposal
would contemplate that where a senatorial
district would include several counties, that
in all probability the house districts would
not be single member districts?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: I do not
think this is necessarily the case. They
could be multi-member districts, or the
legislature could adopt the slot system. The
legislature could adopt cumulative voting,
or it could use single member districts.
DELEGATE CHABOT: But based upon
your answers to Mr. Sollins and your an-
swers to me, I assume that we could not
have each county having at least one mem-
ber of the House of Delegates if we had
single member house districts, is that cor-
rect?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: You can
come pretty close, depending upon the way
you district.
For example, there are now in Kent
County, or there are estimated to be in
Kent County in 1970, 17,900. One-fifth of
the average population in that district
would be about 21.000 people, so in all
likelihood this would be the bulk of Kent
County; and the bulk of the house district
would be in Kent County.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: What would be
the range of populations in house districts,
assuming that you had the maximum num-
ber of house districts permissible under
your proposal, if we had single member
districts?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: If we had
single member districts—I have not at-
tempted to single-member the district for
house purposes, because this is obviously
impossible on a state map and without
census tract figures—but you would have
an average figure of roughly 22,000, or
roughly 27,000 people in each district.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: But you indi-
cated, Kent County was expected to have
approximately 17,000 to 18,000 people.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Yes.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Could you ex-
plain then how Kent County, with a popu-
lation of 17,000 to 18,000, could have one
delegate, if the average size of the dele-
gate district was approximately 27,000?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Because 17 |
