The Town of North Beach was formally incorporated
under the Laws of Maryland, Chapter 395 on April 13, 1910. The original town
charter was composed of 40 sections, dealing with everything from property
rights to voting statutes and municipal powers.
The mayor and six (6)
councilmen were to be elected by ballot on the first Saturday in June. Section
13 stated that the mayor and councilmen were to serve for one-year terms without
pay unless otherwise authorized by vote from the citizens. The Town Council was
required to meet at least once a month in June, July, August and September and
as often as deemed proper for the rest of the year.
In 1922 Chapter 152
was revised and the position of treasurer was now open for election rather than
appointment. A voter was any person over 21 who owned at least 1,000 square feet
of property in the town. Husbands and wives could vote but only per 1,000 square
feet and they had to be paid up on taxes.
The mayor and town council were
now grated the power to appoint three judges of registration who made a list of
all persons entitled to vote, with at least one place for registration in
Washington, D. C. and public notice given in at least one daily newspaper
printed in Washington, D. C.
Controversy over who had the right to vote
was first and fore-front for more than fifty (50) years. The Town Charter was
amended no less than four times in the early days over the issue of how much
property a voter needed to own in order to qualify. The first charter
established voters as “males over 21” who had owned at least 1,500 square feet
for at least 30 days before voting. Eight years later the property requirement
was changed so that eligible voter must have owned 2,500 square feet of property
with the added requirements that he must “prove ownership with a deed” when he
came in to vote. In 1922 the Town Charter was amended again defining eligible
voters as any person over 21 who owned at least 1,000 square feet of property. A
new clause was added that husbands and wives could vote but only per 1,000
square feet of owned property and they had to bring proof of being paid up on
taxes to the polling place. In a town where the majority of property owners
lived out of state, it appears that voter eligibility and who had the right to
vote was tantamount in town politics.
North Beach elections were further
complicated by the fact that so many Washingtonians who were eligible for office
were also government employees. Passage of the Hatch Act in 1939 prohibited
state and local employees from running for an office that received any federal
funds and conversely prevented federal officeholders below the policy-making
level from running for local and state offices. Shortly after the passage of the
Hatch Act, the mayor of North Beach, Dr. George W. Calver, resigned from his
position. Dr. Calver was employed as a United States capitol physician in
Washington, D. C.
Some residents in North Beach took the matter to the
Public Services Commission who, in September of 1940, ruled that government
employees in North beach and Hyattsville were allowed to take part in “political
activities of a local character” as they had before the enactment of the Hatch
Act.
