Maryland Supreme Court rules redistricting question can appear on November ballot
Maryland's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a redistricting ballot question should appear before voters on the November ballot, reversing a lower court decision that had blocked the question.
The state's highest court also directed the ballot summary to be rewritten and clearer.
The court heard two hours of arguments Thursday over whether the constitutional amendment should go before voters.
"You are equating that to the ballot question itself. I don't see how the text supports that," Justice Steven Gould said during the hearing.
Democrats argued that the ballot question concerning congressional redistricting should be allowed to appear on the November ballot.
The measure could give Democrats a chance to gain control of all eight of Maryland's U.S. House seats.
"The proposal passed by a three-fifths majority of each chamber in the Maryland legislature. Therefore, according to the text of the Constitution, that amendment shall be submitted to the voters at the next ensuing general election in a form prescribed by the General Assembly," Assistant Attorney General Daniel Kobrin said.
The ballot question reads:
"The proposed Constitutional Amendment clarifies that certain standards in the Maryland Constitution apply only to districts used to elect members of the General Assembly; authorizes the General Assembly to grant original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court of Maryland to review the congressional districting plan of the State; and requires the criteria for boundaries of congressional districts to be determined by applicable federal laws."
The Supreme Court rejected the multiple-subject argument but concurred that the ballot wording was misleading. However, the court said that wasn't enough to prevent the amendment from going to the people. It instead directed a change to be made to the ballot wording that voters will see.
Republicans argued the language is confusing and improperly combines too many changes into a single question.
They also argued that the legislature failed to follow legal deadlines for getting the question on the ballot.
"The legislature itself set these deadlines and then it proceeded to not set up a process that could possibly comply with it. It put itself in that impossible situation, and we think that if the legislature does that, then unless and until it repeals those election statutes, the actors that it told to act in particular ways, they are bound by that," attorney Jeffrey Clark said.
But the justices questioned whether missing a deadline should be enough to prevent the constitutional amendment from going before voters.
"But you would be giving state executive branch officials effectively the ability to nullify a constitutional amendment proposed by the General Assembly by just missing a deadline," Gould said.
According to the Baltimore Banner, ballot printing, which is scheduled to begin this week, was on hold awaiting the ruling. The first ballots must be mailed to voters starting Sept. 17.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
