Ballot Box

MSNBC commentator Rev. Al Sharpton cut a web video supporting same-sex marriage legislation in Maryland and hosted MD Gov. Martin O'Malley on his cable show this evening to talk about the issue. Sharpton says in his video: "As a Baptist minister, I don't have the right to impose my views on anyone else. " He added: "If committed gay and lesbian couples want to marry, that is their business, none of us should stand in their way. " The governor was on the show live for about six minutes and stuck to his usual talking points -- saying the bill is about fairness and equality.

ATLANTA -- There they go again. Seeking a seat in Congress, a Georgia GOP legislator is raising the specter of phony voters - illegal immigrants sneaking into the voting booth to cast ballots. In a letter to potential contributors, state Sen. Jim Whitehead wrote, "An illegal immigrant should no more be voting in our elections in Georgia than you or I should be voting in Mexico. That's just wrong!" according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters Jim Galloway and Tom Baxter. Mr. Whitehead didn't give any examples of voting by illegal immigrants because he can't cite any. Said Thomas Patterson, an expert on elections at Harvard's Shorenstein Center: "If you are an illegal immigrant, the last thing you want to do is show up at a polling place.

The write-in campaign waged by Thomas E. Hickman -- the 20-year county state's attorney who narrowly lost the GOP primary -- was at a disadvantage from the start.But that never stopped Mr. Hickman or his fiercely loyal cadre of supporters from believing it could work. They believed, many of them up to the last minute, that their candidate could be returned for a sixth term as the county's top prosecutor.That belief quickly surrendered to reality Tuesday night, as they and the rest of the county learned that not only had Republican -- and former Hickman employee -- Jerry F. Barnes cruised to victory, but Mr. Hickman had finished third in a three-candidate race.

There was a brief explosion of optimism from those supporting same-sex marriage in Maryland last week after a poll by Hart Research Associates indicated that voters in the state support it by a significant margin of 54-40. No state has ever approved gay marriage at the ballot box, but advocates here and elsewhere - The New York Times published a piece titled "Hopeful news from Maryland" - contend that the issue hasn't polled this well before either. They shouldn't get too excited just yet. Gay marriage is an issue in which polls don't necessarily reflect what voters will actually do at the ballot box because it is increasingly politically incorrect to oppose such nuptials.

This was the year of the referendum in Maryland, and given how things went at the polls, we're not likely to see a repeat any time soon. The success of all the three laws that were petitioned to referendum exposes the fallacy of Maryland Republicans' notion that they could build support for themselves and check the supposed excesses of the Democratic Party by bringing controversial measures to the voters. When Maryland Republicans, led by freshman Del. Neil Parrott of Washington County, succeeded in putting the Dream Act on the ballot, state GOP Chairman Alex Mooney called it a "game changer" and a counterweight to Democrats who "think that they can do what they want.

The NAACP could file lawsuits alleging voting irregularities against the state of Florida and individual counties there as early as next week, President Kweisi Mfume said yesterday. Mfume also admonished the U.S. Justice Department for not investigating allegations of voting abnormalities that deprived African-Americans of their right to vote in Florida on Nov. 7. "Why has the Justice Department been so silent?" Mfume asked at a morning news conference at NAACP headquarters. "Why is the Justice Department apparently reluctant to carry out their duties?

Fair and free elections are at the heart of any democracy. But how fair is an election when voters aren't offered a choice at the ballot box? That's the dilemma facing Maryland voters this year. After Tuesday's candidate filing deadline, 10 state senators appear destined to run unopposed in both the primary and general elections this year. Collectively, they represent more than one-fifth of the state. That's actually better than four years ago, when 15 candidates for state Senate ran unopposed.

One of the biggest winners in Maryland Tuesday night was not technically on the ballot: the Democratic leadership in Annapolis. All four of the controversial ballot questions were about measures championed by Gov. Martin O'Malley and approved by the General Assembly, where Democrats hold the majority. And all four were affirmed by the voters. Those measures expand gambling, legalize same-sex marriage, allow in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants and create new congressional district boundaries.

Kevin Smith, 15, excitedly began snapping pictures of an old, weathered tombstone he found after wading through tall grass just outside a fenced-in landfill near Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore. "What else can I find?" he said to his friends. Takira White,14, stretched her arms high over the same fence, trying to capture the immense height of the piles of concrete and trash. Smith, White and seven Baltimore students plan to display these and other photos at an exhibition on environmental racism — a term used by advocates to describe how impoverished areas become dumping grounds — as part of a summer project for a nonprofit called The Intersection.