Maryland's Congressional Districts Will Head to Voters
Out of 65,722 signatures collected to secure a referendum, approximately one in five came from Anne Arundel County residents—more than any other county in the state.
Photos
Maryland's State Board of Elections certified enough valid signatures Wednesday to put the state's newly drawn U.S. Congressional boundaries to a referendum vote this November.
"The current validation reached the sufficient number for ballot placement," said Donna Duncan, Maryland's election management division director. "The current number that I have is 56,323 valid names and there is still about 2,900 that are left to verify."
The petitioners only needed to collect 55,736 in order to make it onto the ballot this November.
Duncan said her office will continue to verify the remaining signatures even though the petitioners have already met the threshold.
Anne Arundel County is the current leader amongst all Maryland counties with 11,730 valid signatures.
Republican State Central Committee of Anne Arundel County member Scott Shaffer said he wasn't surprised that the county led in numbers.
Shaffer said he thinks the county is large enough to warrant having its own seat.
"The strong support for this petition is a clear sign that Anne Arundel County voters believe it's time to once again unite our communities into a single Congressional district, as they had been from the first Congress in 1789 until the redistricting plan following the 1990 census," Shaffer said.
Duncan said the language that will appear on the November ballot will not be certified until the third Monday in August.
What do you think about the congressional boundaries as they are currently drawn?
David Zwald
7:49 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
I'm so glad to hear that we, the people, of Maryland will get to vote on this divisive issue. In Anne Arundel County, mostly conservatives, the Governor's redistricting plan carved us up into 4 Congressional Districts from the 2 Districts that we have now. The Maryland constitution calls for contiguous territories, natural borders, and existing political borders to use as guidelines for redistricting. The Governor's office was heard to say that those terms are subject to definition!
What I'd like to remind the Governor is that redistricting can cut both ways. Sooner or later, the electorate will not tolerate gross injustice. It also could cut both ways when the conservative takes office and carves up the state to their advantage. Redistricting can be a legitimate and reasonable use of one's power, or it can be a gross misuse of one's power, and that is what we have this year in Maryland. I hope the voters will see this sham for what it is. I encourage anyone to find the redistricting map online and just try to make sense of it. Can't be done.
Pam
8:56 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
David, I agree 100% the Governor is misusing his power in so many ways this is just business as usual for the one party run state of MD. Conservatives need to continue the fight to take MD back from the tyranny that is in charge in Annapolis and Montgomery County.....Wake up Marylanders...O'Malley is taxing us out the yang!! This November is the most important election of our life time please pay attention!!!!!
Marion Keane
9:32 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
I agree with David also. O'Malley is tax happy and a menace to Maryland!
Amy Leahy
10:03 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
The governor and the Democratic-controlled legislature have made it so that the politicians are picking their constituents instead of the people choosing their representative. There's something inherently wrong with that. I would go so far as to say there must be something illegal about that.
Many thanks to our dedicated Republican leaders for bringing this to the attention of voters. Just like the same-sex marriage petition and the Dream Act petition, this one garnered support from both parties.
kevin
10:55 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Did the govenor pass any important legislation that isn't on the referendum? Seems like we should ask him to retire along with the assembly and we'll just have a general election every year and get things done in Maryland. I honestly don't know the answer to this but how many laws were overturned by referendum during Erlich's administration? I'm sure Steve will know.
Amy Leahy
11:07 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Yes, kevin. Unfortunately, all the taxing legislation and budgetary legislation gets passed and is not allowed by law to be put at the ballot for a vote by the people. That important piece of their job is all theirs.