Earlier this month, the Maryland General Assembly heard testimony on the Ballot Petition Modernization Act (SB 1029/HB 1109). The petitions this legislation focuses on have become a staple of Baltimore City farmers’ markets, fairs, and festivals where petitioners ask voters to sign to put a person, party or policy on the ballot. The legislation, sponsored by Delegate Sheila Ruth and Senator Jill Carter, seeks to make it easier for voters to ensure their voice is heard when they sign a petition.
A recent example of a petition that this legislation would have helped is the 2022 Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition petition to authorize a Regional Transit Authority. This petition was deemed insufficient because 5,265 of the 14,943 signatures submitted were invalidated. When BTEC took this to court, the judge upheld the Board of Elections’ ruling that the petition was insufficient but noted serious misgivings about the process the Board of Elections used to validate signatures. Thirty-five percent of the signatures BTEC submitted were invalidated, and they missed getting on the ballot by 322 signatures.
Often when I have shared this legislation and my concerns around the outdated process with Baltimore City elected Democrats and political insiders, they have expressed one overwhelming concern: Sinclair/Fox 45/David Smith’s use of the petition process. From there, they usually go on to talk about how voters vote yes on all charter amendments, and the process is broken, even recommending that we should make it harder to get people, parties and policies on the ballot.
The charter amendments Smith has personally financed — term limits, recall, and a smaller city council — are bad policy. I take Smith at his word when he says that the term limits amendment was a “test.” I expect him to fund additional charter amendments here in the city, in Baltimore County, and across the region to reshape local government in line with his right-wing, anti-Black, anti-immigrant, regressive vision. I also expect him to use his television network, his newspapers, and his other media assets to advocate for these charter amendments.
The reason Smith can do this can be found in campaign finance law dictated by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections Summary Guide: “A ballot issue committee can receive unlimited contributions from an individual, business entity, or any other organization. In addition, there is no restriction on the amount that a political committee may transfer to a ballot issue committee.”
Indeed, Smith has made good on this, donating $1 million between the term limits and other city council charter initiatives, and has used his media networks to advocate directly and indirectly for these amendments. As long as campaign finance laws are structured as they are, it will never be difficult for Smith and other wealthy interests to get issues on the ballot. They can simply pay petitioners to collect signatures, and they can give six-figure contracts to law firms to ensure that the validation process goes smoothly for them.
Currently, the petition forms are a handwritten pen-and-paper process. Names on the form have to match the name on file in the voter database nearly exactly, and signatures have to match names. The form is poorly designed and has remained the same as laws, regulations, and digital communications have evolved.
To determine whether a petition is sufficient and makes the ballot, it must contain enough valid signatures to cross the threshold required by law.
To determine whether a petition is sufficient and makes the ballot, it must contain enough valid signatures to cross the threshold required by law. That threshold is 10,000 for a party or charter amendment and different amounts for candidates, depending on the office. The process that the local boards use to do this validation is tedious, complex, arbitrary, and opaque. Each of the handwritten signatures has to be read, checked against the voter database, evaluated using a 12-page guide, hand-coded, and then tallied. If the petition is deemed insufficient, petition sponsors need to go to court and challenge invalidated signatures within 10 days. Voters whose signature is invalidated are never informed, nor do they have an opportunity to correct technical errors.
The Ballot Petition Modernization Act attempts to modernize that process by allowing voters to utilize electronic web-based forms and signatures, replacing the exact name match with a reasonability standard, and allowing voters whose signature is invalidated to correct technical errors. These improvements have precedent. During the 2020 COVID state of emergency, Maryland allowed electronic petition signatures, and since then, New Mexico and Arizona have both made their emergency petition measures permanent. Massachusetts and other states have reasonability standards for name match, and it is common practice to allow voters to correct technical errors on forms.
The Ballot Petition Modernization Act levels the playing field for grassroots and community-based groups trying to compete against Smith, Sinclair, and other well-funded interests, by making it easier for the voices of voters to be heard. The people and groups hurt by the current standards and any future efforts to make it harder to get on the ballot are grassroots and community-led organizations. Often these groups use volunteers to collect their signatures and do not have the money to hire big law firms to watch the local board of elections and advocate for them in court.
Baltimore and Maryland residents need grassroots democracy to work, to be fair, and to represent all voices, and the Ballot Petition Modernization Act is the way to do that.
Baltimore and Maryland residents need grassroots democracy to work, to be fair, and to represent all voices, and the Ballot Petition Modernization Act is the way to do that. Urge the General Assembly to pass this legislation this year.
Andy Ellis is a former co-chair of the Baltimore and Maryland Green Party. He is an appointed member of the Baltimore City Charter Review Commission. Ellis Lives in Northeast Baltimore.