the House of Delegates into three (3) single-member
delegate districts or one (1) single-member delegate dis-
trict and one (1) multi-member delegate district.

SEC. 4. Each legislative district shall consist of
adjoining territory, be compact in form, and of substan-
tially equal population. Due regard shall be given to
natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdi-
visions.

SEC. 5. Following each decennial census of the
United States and after public hearings, the Governor shall
prepare a plan setting forth the boundaries of the legisla-
tive districts for electing of the members of the Senate and
the House of Delegates.

The Governor shall present the plan to the President
of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates who
shall introduce the Governor's plan as a joint resolution
to the General Assembly, not later than the first day of its
regular session in the second year following every census,
and the Governor may call a special session for the pres-
entation of his plan prior to the regular session. The plan
shall conform to Sections 2, 3 and 4 of this Article.
Following each decennial census the General Assembly
may by joint resolution adopt a plan setting forth the
boundaries of the legislative districts for the election of
members of the Senate and the House of Delegates, which
plan shall conform to Sections 2, 3 and 4 of this Article.
If a plan has been adopted by the General Assembly by the
45th day after the opening of the regular session of the
General Assembly in the second year following every
census, the plan adopted by the General Assembly shall
become law. If no plan has been adopted by the General
Assembly for these purposes by the 45th day after the
opening of the regular session of the General Assembly in
the second year following every census, the Governor's
plan presented to the General Assembly shall become law.

Upon petition of any registered voter, the Court of
Appeals shall have original jurisdiction to review the legis-
lative districting of the State and may grant appropriate
relief, if it finds that the districting of the State is not
consistent with requirements of either the Constitution of
the United States of America, or the Constitution of Mary-
land.
49

SEC. 6. A member of the General Assembly shall be
elected by the registered voters of the legislative or dele-
gate district from which he seeks election, to serve for a
term of four years beginning on the second Wednesday of
January following his election.

SEC. 7. The election for Senators and Delegates
shall take place on the Tuesday next, after the first Monday

in the month of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-
eight, and in every fourth year thereafter.

SEC. 8.⁵¹ Vacant.

SEC. 9.' A person is eligible to serve as a Senator or
Delegate, who on the date of his election, (1) is a citizen of
the State of Maryland, (2) has resided therein for at least one
year next preceding that date, and (3) if the district which
he has been chosen to represent has been established for at
least six months prior to the date of his election, has resided
in that district for six months next preceding that date.

If the district which the person has been chosen to
represent has been established less than six months prior
to the date of his election, then in addition to (1) and (2)
above, he shall have resided in the district for as long as it
has been established.

A person is eligible to serve as a Senator, if he has
attained the age of twenty-five years, or as a Delegate, if
he has attained the age of twenty-one years, on the date
of his election.

SEC. 10. ISo member of Congress, or person hold-
ing any civil, or military office under the United States,
shall be eligible as a Senator, or Delegate; and if any person
shall after his election as Senator, or Delegate, be elected
to Congress, or be appointed to any office, civil, or
military, under the Government of the United States, his
acceptance thereof, shall vacate his seat; except that a
Senator or Delegate may be a member of a reserve com-
ponent of the armed forces of the United States or a
member of the militia of the United States or this State.

54
SEC. 11. No person holding any civil office of

profit, or trust, under this State shall be eligible as Senator
or Delegate.

SEC. 12. No Collector, Receiver, or Holder of public
money shall be eligible as Senator or Delegate, or to any
office of profit, or trust, under this State, until he shall
have accounted for, and paid into the Treasury all sums on
the books thereof, charged to, and due by him.

SEC. 13.⁵⁵ (a) (1) In case of death, disqualification,
resignation, refusal to act, expulsion, or removal from the
county or city for which he shall have been elected, of any
person who shall have been chosen as a Delegate or Senator,
or in case of a tie between two or more such qualified
persons, the Governor shall appoint a person to fill such
vacancy from a person whose name shall be submitted to
him in writing, within thirty days after the occurrence of the
vacancy, by the Central Committee of the political party, if
any, with which the Delegate or Senator, so vacating, had
been affiliated, at the time of the last election or appointment
ofthe vacating Senator or Delegate, in the County or District