Election Laws

In the wake of Ellen R. Sauerbrey's landmark election challenge, state legislative leaders said yesterday that they want to create a bipartisan task force to investigate election-law reforms.The presiding officers of the House and Senate said they are drafting an emergency bill that would set up a legislative-executive commission as early as this winter."In general we want to restore the faith and confidence of the people of Maryland in the election process," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., a Prince George's County Democrat.

Given the heated controversies over potential restrictions on voters' access to the polls during this year's presidential election, now is no time to back off on the legal protections that guarantee one of a democracy's most fundamental rights. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that protects minorities' access to the polls. The law is one of the signature legacies of the civil rights era, and experience has shown it is still needed.

In a possible violation of state election laws, at least a half-dozen Old Court Middle School employees were recruited and paid $125 each on primary election day to work the polls for state Senate candidate -- and current school board member -- Robert Fulton Dashiell.Dashiell, who was soundly defeated in his primary bid to unseat 10th District Democratic state Sen. Delores G. Kelley, confirmed that the $125 checks were given out at Dashiell's election night ++ headquarters at the Forum, a catering hall in Northwest Baltimore.

At the heart of a Pennsylvania judge's decision to let that state's voter ID requirement stand for the fall election is the notion that people can get those documents easily and cheaply, in many cases for free. Echoing the sentiments of the backers of such laws across the nation, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson no voter need be disenfranchised because they are poor or minority. But the reality is quite different. As a recent report from the Brennan Center for Justice notes, it's not so easy to obtain a state-issued ID in states with restrictive voter ID laws.

THE CLOSER Sun reporters look into campaign filings at the state election board, the clearer it becomes Maryland's election law apparatus has broken down. There is no systematic enforcement of donation limits, and precious little prosecution.Reporters William F. Zorzi Jr. and Walter F. Roche Jr. discovered that at least seven individuals and companies -- including Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos and bakery entrepreneur John Paterakis -- had exceeded Maryland's $10,000 limit on political donations in a four-year cycle.

General Assembly OKs bill to create panel on election lawsThe General Assembly gave final approval yesterday to a bill creating a commission to update Maryland's election laws and review the operations of state and local elections boards.The legislation passed the House of Delegates 137-1 and was sent to Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who is expected to sign it into law.The commission was recommended by a state task force that reviewed concerns raised by Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey in her legal challenge to the 1994 gubernatorial election, which she lost by a slim margin.

MOSCOW -- Russia has sharply reduced the number of European monitors permitted to observe upcoming parliament elections and has imposed restrictions that may impede the ability of opposition parties to run successful campaigns, one of Europe's main monitoring delegations said yesterday. An assessment before the Dec. 2 vote by a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe raises questions about whether political opponents can counter the government of President Vladimir V. Putin and its pervasive control over parliament and the electronic media.

A Republican candidate for Howard County state's attorney has asked the state's special prosecutor to decide if one of his Democratic opponents violated election laws by having assistant prosecutors work for his campaign.Joseph Fleischmann II, an Ellicott City lawyer, had a letter hand-delivered to state prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli yesterday asking him to investigate the campaign of Michael Weal.Mr. Fleischmann said he's concerned that Mr. Weal violated state election laws by having two senior prosecutors -- who Mr. Weal said would serve as his deputies if he is elected -- help lead his campaign.

A Randallstown businessman illegally funneled $10,000 to Rep. Elijah E. Cummings' 1996 election effort by having employees at ECS Technologies Inc. write personal checks to the campaign, then reimbursing them with company money, federal prosecutors say. Charges against Walter Wallace E. Hill Jr. mark the third federal case this year involving allegations of improper campaign contributions to Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat. In separate cases, Mark and Douglas Loizeaux, who run a Baltimore County demolition company, and Baltimore demolition expert Pless B. Jones also face federal charges of masking illegal donations to Cummings' 1996 and 1998 campaigns.

The state election board is asking lawmakers for up to $100,000 to hire a private investigator to look into irregularities during November's election.Members of the State Administrative Board of Election Laws said yesterday that they would give the General Assembly until March 2 to respond to their request, which was sent last week to Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr.Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including Mr. Miller and Mr. Taylor, already have proposed creating a 13-member task force to review the state's election laws and recommend changes by Dec. 31."

The election fraud trial of veteran political consultant Julius Henson has been postponed again due to scheduling conflicts. A hearing on preliminary motions in the case, which centers on an Election Day 2010 robocall, is now scheduled for April 10 with the trial expected to start on April 30. The case was postponed earlier this month because of the illness of a state investigator. Henson, 62, faces two counts of conspiracy to violate election laws, one count of election fraud and one count of failing to include a campaign authority line on the call.

The trial of a veteran political operative, charged with violating election laws by sending out robocalls on Election Day last year that suggested voting was over, was postponed Tuesday after the only judge available to hear the case recused himself. Julius Henson, 62, who at the time was working for former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. on his 2010 campaign, is charged with three counts of conspiracy to violate election laws, among other charges. A new trial was set for February. The case was assigned to Baltimore Circuit Judge Charles J. Peters, but, according to Henson's attorney, Edward Smith Jr., Peters recused himself because he had recently been appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, Ehrlich's opponent in last year's gubernatorial election.

A Baltimore developer has paid a $55,000 fine to settle a case in which the Federal Election Commission found the company used corporate funds to make campaign contributions in the names of company executives during the 2006 election cycle. Edward St. John, chairman and owner of St. John Properties Inc., agreed to pay the civil penalty after the commission found that political contributions by six senior vice presidents, who were later reimbursed by the company, violated laws that prohibit corporations from using general funds to help elect candidates to federal office, the FEC reported.

The Anne Arundel County judge who lost his post in the Nov. 2 election has alleged that the Republican challenger who beat him might have violated election laws. In a letter dated Friday and addressed to the state prosecutor, Maryland's attorney general and the Anne Arundel state's attorney, Circuit Judge Ronald H. Jarashow wrote that his allegations "warrant an investigation and possible prosecution of Alison L. Asti. " The allegations are based on a flier that he said "likely violates" the law. "I think that there are election violations that I am witness to, and I felt it was appropriate to bring it to the attention of these people," Jarashow said Friday.

Opponents of slots at Arundel Mills mall are asking Maryland's attorney general to investigate claims that the Cordish Cos. violated election law by offering ownership stakes and perks to local business owners in exchange for support of its planned billion-dollar casino. In a letter Thursday to Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, the group No Slots at the Mall contends that Cordish Chairman David Cordish acted improperly in offering local business owners the chance to invest in his planned Maryland Live!

"The Robert and Kendel Ehrlich Show," which airs for two hours each Saturday morning on WBAL-AM, should not be considered a campaign contribution, the Maryland attorney general's office said in a letter released Monday. The letter came as advice to the State Board of Elections after the Maryland Democratic Party complained to the board that the show is essentially an unreported in-kind campaign contribution from the station to former Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who is trying to reclaim the state's top job from Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley.

ANY ELECTED OFFICIAL should undergo close scrutiny when soliciting money from the public. Maryland's election laws, though not as strong as they should be, help by requiring office-seekers to file campaign finance reports at regular intervals. These rules enable citizens to watch for connections between elected officials' decisions and the flow of donations to their campaigns. But an article last Sunday by Craig Timberg of the Howard County bureau of The Sun underscored a gaping loophole in state and local laws.

PERHAPS ONCE A DECADE, politicians get serious about strengthening state election laws. This time it took a series of missteps by Gov. Parris N. Glendening to spur reforms backed by the General Assembly's presiding officers. Yet lawmakers may still weaken these bills, leaving only the illusion that "reforms" have taken place.Advocacy groups are concerned that legislators don't really want to see sweeping changes, that they don't truly want to open their campaign finance reports to scrutiny by the public.

BAGHDAD - - As Iraqi officials prepared to announce a new date for long-delayed national elections, car bombs detonated at government buildings and in crowded Baghdad streets Tuesday, killing at least 127 people and wounding about 500 more. The attacks on state institutions appeared aimed at further eroding the Iraqi people's faith in the political process, which many already viewed with deep skepticism. The morning blasts shook the eastern and western sides of the city over a span of about 30 minutes, gutting parts of the city's main courthouse on the western side of the Tigris River and other buildings.