Petition Drive

Maryland's new gun control law will not head to voters now that organizers of a petition drive to halt the law failed to turn in any signatures before Friday night's deadline. "This means there were no successful petitions this year," Stephen Ackerman from the Secretary of State's Office said in an email. A referendum would have delayed the gun law until after the November 2014 election, and the petition drive's failure was welcomed by gun control groups. "This is a great day for Maryland," said Vincent DeMarco, president of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence.

Editor: I am distressed and saddened that the death penalty repeal is not being brought to referendum because not enough signatures were secured in the short amount of time provided to do so. As the relative of a murder victim I would have liked the opportunity to sign a petition and to go door-to-door to gather signatures. I would have gladly stood outside Harford Mall or any other public place to collect signatures. The petition drive apparently was never well-publicized on TV. I did not encounter any volunteers throughout Harford County seeking signatures.

A direct-mail appeal to 20,000 mostly Republican voters this weekend is Howard County Republicans' last chance to pull what has been a losing charter referendum petition drive out of a death spiral as time runs out. With two weeks until the Aug. 9 deadline for collecting 10,000 valid signatures to place a charter amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot, petition drive chairman Ken Aldrich said he has fewer than 3,000 signatures. He needs about 15,000 overall to end up with enough valid signatures for the Taxpayer Protection Initiative.

So what was all this about a voter referendum or two? Opponents of a pair of controversial measures backed by Gov. Martin O'Malley and approved this year by the Maryland General Assembly - a repeal of the death penalty and landmark gun control legislation - claimed the local populace was outraged by both. So certain was this that many fully expected them to be brought to referendum and defeated by voters in 2014. The petition drive to bring the death penalty repeal to referendum was even championed by Western Maryland Del. Neil Parrott who was instrumental in bringing three laws to referendum last year through use of a web site that made the signature-gathering process easier.

The apparent failure of a petition drive intended to block approval of up to 5,500 new residences in central Columbia because of signatures that were ruled invalid has underscored the effect of Maryland's strict rules governing validity and the lack of progress to ease them. Legislation that would return to a standard of "reasonable certainty" that the person signing is a legitimate registered voter instead of rules that require exact matches of every letter, including middle initials, has languished in the Maryland Senate.

Anne Arundel County elections officials have certified a petition drive to try to halt a proposed slot machine site at a popular shopping mall in a referendum. The Anne Arundel County Board of Elections certified Thursday that 22,967 signatures gathered by foes of a casino at Arundel Mills mall are valid. Opponents of the site needed 18,790 signatures to put the proposal on the ballot in November. Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. has sued the board, contending that it overlooked fraud in the petition drive.

Regarding the petition drive to suspend the law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants: At least the immigrants are trying to better themselves by getting an education that will lead to jobs so they can become self-supporting members of society. The reason people are signing the petition has nothing at all to do with money. It's about bigotry. It's not as if the immigrants will be getting free tuition, after all. They will pay in-state fees. This is just another example of how this country clings to any opportunity to discriminate against a group of people, in this case against Hispanics.

A Republican-sponsored petition drive intended to require a super-majority of County Council votes to increase taxes has failed to collect enough signatures to place the issue before voters in November. Ken Aldrich, who organized the drive for the local GOP, said his team collected about 5,000 of the 10,000 signatures required to put the measure on the ballot. Monday is the deadline for submitting the names. "We lose. We're not going to pursue it any more" this year, Aldrich said.

A direct-mail appeal to 20,000 mostly Republican voters this weekend is Howard County Republicans' last chance to pull what has been a losing charter referendum petition drive out of a death spiral as time runs out. With two weeks until the Aug. 9 deadline for collecting 10,000 valid signatures to place a charter amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot, petition drive chairman Ken Aldrich said he has fewer than 3,000 signatures. He needs about 15,000 overall to end up with enough valid signatures for the Taxpayer Protection Initiative.

Maryland's new gun control law will not head to voters now that organizers of a petition drive to halt the law failed to turn in any signatures before Friday night's deadline. "This means there were no successful petitions this year," Stephen Ackerman from the Secretary of State's Office said in an email. A referendum would have delayed the gun law until after the November 2014 election, and the petition drive's failure was welcomed by gun control groups. "This is a great day for Maryland," said Vincent DeMarco, president of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence.

The death penalty debate in Maryland is finally over. This spring's decision by the General Assembly to replace the death penalty with life without parole was cemented last week, when right-wing activists failed to muster enough signatures to force the issue onto the ballot. We, the people of Maryland, have sent a clear and firm message: capital punishment belongs in our past, not our future. In doing so, we have joined New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Illinois and Connecticut as the sixth state in six years and 18th in the nation to abolish the death penalty.

Proponents of putting Maryland's new gun law to referendum plan to wait until Friday's midnight deadline to deliver their first round of signatures. And they may wait until Saturday night to tell the public the results. Sue Payne, the Montgomery County woman leading the effort, has said she is too busy to talk as she works to compile more than 18,500 signatures due today in order to keep the referendum effort alive.  Payne has said from the beginning of her campaign that she launched Free State Petitions "on a wing and a prayer" and that collecting all the signatures would be a challenge.

Maryland's death penalty will be wiped from the books in October now that efforts to reinstate capital punishment have fallen short. The petition drive to halt repeal of the death penalty ended Friday afternoon, when organizers said they could not collect enough signatures to go forward. Meanwhile, advocates who worked for nearly a decade to end capital punishment in Maryland celebrated the final landmark in their victory. The failure is the first for MdPetitions.com, which had successfully forced a statewide vote on three laws, including same-sex marriage, in 2012.

  A Montgomery County woman who has split with other Second Amendment activists on how to fight Gov. Martin O'Malley 's recently passed gun safety bill said Friday that she has received the green light to begin a petition drive to bring the issue to a referendum. Sue Payne said has received approval from the State Board of Elections for the form and summary wording of the petitions she intends to circulate as she seeks signatures to put the gun bill, which O'Malley is expect to sign later this month, on the 2014 ballot.

One day after Gov. Martin O'Malley signed legislation to abolish capital punishment in Maryland, death penalty supporters said Friday they will launch a petition drive to give voters the opportunity to overturn the new law. At a news conference, Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger said he plans to lead the effort to "repeal the repeal" of the state's death penalty. "We need to retain the death penalty for those prosecutors who wish to seek it because it is simply the right thing to do for public safety," said Shellenberger, a Democrat.

With the swipe of an excavator, a demolition crew began taking down the abandoned Solo Cup factory in Owings Mills on Thursday, work that will clear the way for new development that was once threatened by opposition. When the abandoned plant is flattened, developers plan to build a $140 million shopping center anchored by the upscale grocer Wegmans, as well as a gym, restaurants, offices and stores. Developers say Foundry Row will open by late 2015 or early 2016. The ceremonial start to demolition at the site on the corner of Reisterstown and Painters Mill roads followed months of debate among residents, developers and Baltimore County Council members.

Developers and shopping center owners contributed nearly $600,000 in the rejected bid to overturn Baltimore County Council votes on zoning issues, according to financial reports. If successful, the referendum drive would have allowed county voters to decide the fate of dozens of properties, including the former Solo Cup site in Owings Mills, the Middle River Depot and Green Spring Station in Lutherville. County elections officials ruled last week that petitions used in the drive didn't meet legal standards because they did not provide enough information to voters who were asked to sign.