Election Day

Laurel's Board of Election Supervisors is looking for city residents to serve as election day judges for the city's general election Nov. 1. Board officials have said that they prefer judges who have prior experience, but that experience as an election day judge is not necessary. Interested residents should send a resume or letter of interest to Kimberley Rau, clerk to the Board of Election Supervisors. For more information about serving as a Laurel election day judge, call 301-725-5300, ext. 2121 or email krau@laurel.md.us .

Political consultant Julius Henson's attorney used a stack of fake oversized money, invoked slavery and called prosecutors' election fraud case against his client a "bunch of bull-honky" during his closing argument Wednesday afternoon. Using props, charts and a blend of humor and outrage, Edward Smith Jr. talked to the jury for an hour, shifting his style between folksy and erudite. He quoted lyrics from the song "Backstabbers" by the O'Jays, showed jurors a photo of what he called a "twisted" man meant to represent the prosecution, and recommended that the deputy state prosecutor "just walk out the door right now" rather than present his arguments.

Watching election night coverage on the cable networks was quite entertaining, though I don't know why dozens of people were huddled together on CNN's set. It looked like the Last Supper squared. This is the kind of thing the fabled empty suits in TV land think is a good idea. It's not, unless confusion is the goal. Knowing the general shape of things — that the Democrats were going to be shellacked, with the only question being the extent of the shellacking — I couldn't resist looking at and listening to the gaggle of committed Obama worshipers on MSNBC either.

Two Democratic candidates in Maryland's 1st Congressional District remained locked Thursday in a too-close-to-call contest for the party's nomination, after an initial tally of absentee ballots left them separated by fewer than 100 votes. In the only still-undecided race from Tuesday's statewide primary, Cockeysville businesswoman Wendy Rosen had an 86-vote lead over physician John LaFerla of Chestertown, out of more than 25,000 ballots cast. Rosen has declared victory, but LaFerla has said the race remains too close for him to concede.

Baltimore's Department of Public Works will not be collecting trash or recycling Nov. 2, because of Election Day. Residents whose trash or recycling is normally collected on Tuesday should put trash out on Nov. 6. In addition, no bulk trash collection will be scheduled Tuesday. City officials said that the Quarantine Road Landfill, the Northwest Transfer Station and the Eastern, Western and Northwestern sanitation yards will be closed Tuesday. Parking meters and regulations in Baltimore will be in effect.

The automated Election Day phone calls telling Marylanders to "relax" because Gov. Martin O'Malley had already won were generated by a Democratic operative who said he was working for Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The Baltimore Sun tracked the calls, which came while polls were still open, to a company called Robodial.org, a Pennsylvania-based outfit that works exclusively for progressive and Democratic candidates. The company's owner said a representative of Universal Elections of Baltimore paid for and recorded the call.

Election Day is Tuesday for residents of Bel Air and Aberdeen, where people will be voting on who will hold several key municipal offices. In Bel Air, voters will be casting ballots for three of five candidates for town commissioner, while in Aberdeen, the only contested race is the mayor's, where incumbent Mike Bennett is being challenged by Patrick McGrady. Usually quiet Bel Air town elections are typically low key and produce equally low voter turnouts. Running for three town commissioner seats in Bel Air are incumbents Terry Hanley, Eddie Hopkins and Rob Reier.

Only five weeks remain before the November general election, but Reginald G. Avery's campaign for Howard County Council is just getting started. The 56-year-old Oakland Mills resident became a Republican county council candidate Monday after an earlier candidate nominated in the primary officially withdrew. Avery admitted his chances of unseating incumbent Democrat Calvin Ball in East Columbia's District 2 election are slim at best, but he said "I believe residents should have a choice.

U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and six of Maryland's incumbent members of the House of Representatives have won re-election, according to the Associated Press. The winners include Democrats Elijah E. Cummings, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen, and the state's lone Republican congressman, Roscoe Bartlett. Mikulski, a Democrat, won re-election to a fifth term, defeating Eric Wargotz, a Republican commissioner from Queen Anne's County.

An article about collectors of Election Day newspapers in yesterday's Today section misquoted collector Rick Brown as saying that the Declaration of Independence was signed on Sept. 17, 1787. Mr. Brown had correctly said that the Constitution was signed on that date. The Sun regrets the error.

With the addition of early voting to the local political scene, a new dynamic has been added to the electoral process. Even so, it appears based on turnout the tradition of going out to vote on an official Election Day has something of a luster that doesn't carry over to the election days of the early voting schedule. Either way, the early voting participation numbers indicate voter turnout will be anemic come Tuesday, April 3. That's not just a shame. It's a disgrace. Men and women remain in harm's way overseas fighting to secure a nation - actually more of an ungovernable territory - that was used as base of operations for the9/11attacks of a decade ago. In other words, they're fighting to protect our basic freedoms from those who would impose a particular brand of tyranny, the imposition of a particular variety of religious law. This is counter to our tradition of acknowledging that the almighty is revealed to different people in different ways, and that faith is a matter of personal choice.

As election day approaches, I have to ask a simple question: Do the people we elect to political office truly represent the people of this country? The population of the United States includes roughly 300 million people. Those people have elected one president, 100 senators, and 435 congressmen. That equals 536 individuals out of roughly 300 million people who are directly responsible for the problems that our country faces today. These people, (Democrats and Republicans alike) create these problems and then campaign against them.

WESTMINSTER — Early voting centers for the 2012 Presidential Primary Election are open for voting Sunday, March 25 from noon to 6 p.m. and March 26-29 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters may vote at a designated early voting center in their county of residence. In Carroll County, an early voting center is being held at Westminster Senior Center, 125 Stoner Ave. in Westminster. More information about early voting is available at http://www.elections.state.md.us/voting/early_voting.html.

March 1 marks the beginning of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and The Arc Northern Chesapeake Region will be joining with people and chapters across the country to raise awareness about issues facing those with disabilities. To observe this month, The Arc Northern Chesapeake Region will be promoting the news and sharing stories at various activities in the community with the goal to promote and protect the rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, stories like Jason Coffman, of Harford County, and his recycler position that opened the door to a micro-enterprise opportunity.

Considering that Paul Schurick faced as much as 12 years in prison for his role in a 2010 election day robocall that fraudulently urged voters to stay home from the polls, the sentence handed down today to former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s 2010 campaign manager may sound a bit light. Mr. Schurick will serve no jail time and pay no fine. He was sentenced to 30 days of home detention, four years of probation and 500 hours of community service. And he shamefully continued to insist on the courthouse steps after the sentence that a clear attempt to suppress black votes was actually a "counterintuitive" effort to turn out African-American supporters of Mr. Ehrlich.

Will Maryland voters see super PAC money spent here to influence the outcome of an election in 2012? If a certain congressional race gets close - say, the general election in the reshaped Sixth District - it's possible, even likely. Only two of the state's eight House seats are Republican. With the new Sixth in danger of slipping to the Democrats, some fat-cat super PAC might decide to throw money into advertising on behalf of the Republican candidate. Vice-versa if the Democrat needs an edge.

A Silver Spring-based nonprofit group known for its work on campaign reform issues is under investigation by the state prosecutor's office in the possible violation of Maryland election laws. Progressive Maryland, a liberal advocacy group, is accused of paying more than 30 people to pass out sample ballots on Election Day last year. The ballots supported, among others, gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr., both Democrats. State law prohibits candidates and their representatives or advocates from paying people to canvass on Election Day. "We received a call from their executive director, Tom Hucker, sometime before the general election saying that they were an advocacy group, and they wanted to know what they could do on Election Day," State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli said yesterday.

School officials and parents across the nation are turning an increasingly critical eye on the time- honored tradition of voters' casting ballots in the gymnasiums and hallways of neighborhood school buildings while classes go on as usual just a few yards away. Citing a list of safety concerns, many officials are opting to keep youngsters home on Nov. 4, Election Day. "School districts across the country now spend millions of dollars each year on controlling access to buildings with locked doors and surveillance cameras to keep strangers out," said Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based advocacy group.

The following letter was sent to Randy Cerveny, President of the Harford County Education Association. A copy was provided for publication. My wife is a teacher at Church Creek Elementary School and has been a member of the HCEA for several years. Up until recently, my wife and I have given very little thought to the current (or future) bargaining agreement between DOE and the HCEA. Admittedly, it took this bonus "crisis" for either of us to really pay much attention. In the past several months we have become acutely aware that there are fundamental differences in opinion between the two sides on this issue.

Let me see if I can get this straight. A political aide to former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was convicted Tuesday of conspiring to use election day robocalls in an effort to suppress black voter turnout during the 2010 gubernatorial election ("Schurick convicted," Dec. 7). In 2008, members of the New Black Panther Party stood at a Philadelphia polling place, shook a billy club, used menacing gestures, and made racial threats to intimidate voters. Attorney General Eric Holder and his Justice Department dismissed all charges against two of the men, and the third got a slap on the wrist and was told to simply not display a weapon within 100 feet of any open polling location on any election day in the city of Philadelphia until Nov. 15, 2012.