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January 20, 2021
Maryland lawmakers are planning wide-ranging election reforms during the 2021 legislative session, including requiring special elections for filling vacant House and Senate seats and expanding ballot access for incarcerated voters.
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At a Tuesday afternoon House Ways and Means Committee hearing, lawmakers outlined some of their election-related bills. Many of the proposals, such as an attempt to improve access to voting materials for persons in jail, were offered during the 2020 legislative session, but failed to advance when legislators went home early due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other measures long predate the COVID-19 pandemic, including a renewed push to change how vacancies in the General Assembly are filled.
Last yearâs replacement of disgraced Baltimore state delegate Cheryl Glenn with the House Majority Whipâs daughter was so egregious it might understandably leave the impression that the insiders club process is a city phenomenon, a Maryland Democratic Party thing.
First, the press was kicked out of the room, then the committee installed Chanel Branch as the 45th Districtâs representative, with Ms. Branch casting the deciding vote for herself. âIâm a daddyâs girl,â she quipped.
But itâs not just Baltimore lawmakers who get their ticket to Annapolis punched by a couple of party officials rather than a vote by the people. Thanks to the âcentral committeeâ selection system, voters in District 2A, in far Western Maryland, havenât had a choice for three terms.