Referendum

Governor Martin O'Malley's announcement that he intends to lead efforts to pass a same-sex marriage bill is about the worst decision this liberal Democrat has made yet to pull Maryland into the gutter ("O'Malley to back same-sex marriage," July 23). Same-sex marriage has no business in the Free State or anywhere else in the country. A marriage is between a man and a woman - period. This is all about the votes that the Democrats hope to win in the next election. If Governor O'Malley goes through with this foolishness, let the citizens of Maryland force it to another referendum like the one on the Dream Act's granting of college tuition breaks for illegal immigrants.

In Maryland, residents are entitled to view the names of the people who sign petitions challenging state and local laws, but the matter of when they become public record depends on where you are. In the contentious drive for a Baltimore County referendum that would challenge zoning changes, developers and community activists who oppose the vote asked the local elections board for copies of the petitions that are going around the county. The opponents want to begin contacting people who signed the petitions because they allege that petition circulators misled citizens, and filed a Public Information Act request for the documents.

A petition drive to reverse a portion of the 30-year redevelopment plan for downtown Columbia by referendum appears to be gaining momentum. Late Friday, organizers of the drive turned in 40 percent more signatures than required for the first deadline they faced, and they vowed to continue working. The group, Taxpayers Against Giveaways, turned in 3,510 signatures, spokesman Russell Swatek said, far more than the 2,500 required. They now have until April 30 to pass the 5,000 mark, which is Howard County's threshold for petitioning a County Council zoning vote to referendum.

In bucolic Sykesville, the No. 1 complaint received by Police Chief John Williams is motorists speeding on quiet streets. But with a force of only seven officers, he said, there is no way to enforce traffic laws with radar guns alone. Encouraged by the experience of other Maryland towns, Williams recommended a new approach: speed cameras. Earlier this year, the Town Council agreed to take advantage of a 2009 state law giving municipalities the option to install the electronic devices near schools and in road-construction zones.

After petitions sent three Maryland laws to voters this fall - the first such referendums in 20 years - state leaders said Tuesday that the process designed in the era before electronic signatures needs a fresh look. "Our forefathers never imagined everything that we did in Annapolis would be subject to referendum," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said. Opponents of same-sex marriage, the Dream Act that granted in-state tuition to some illegal immigrants and the redrawn congressional boundaries harnessed the petition process, gathering enough signatures to place each law on the November ballot.

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 Democrats who control Maryland have tipped their hand regarding their view of the referendum process ("State leaders contemplate changes to referendum process," Jan. 8). Your article quoted state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller as saying "our forefathers never imagined everything that we did in Annapolis would be subject to referendum. " Oh, really? What does Senator Miller think a duly elected representative government is subject to? Unquestioned loyalty? Absolutely not. Mr. Miller, along with the rest of the legislatures and the governor, are elected to represent us , not to serve their own purposes.

Lawyers representing developers of the former Solo Cup and Middle River Depot properties asked the Baltimore County elections board Friday to reject petitions for a referendum to overturn zoning votes, saying the signatures were obtained by fraud. A memo they filed with the board also argues that the law does not allow local zoning decisions to go to referendum and that petitions that circulated throughout the community did not include legally required information to explain to people what they were signing.

Voters will decide in November if they want to allow in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants at Maryland's public colleges and universities, an Anne Arundel County judge ruled Friday. Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth rejected arguments by immigrant advocacy group Casa de Maryland and others that the law adopted by the General Assembly last year cannot be the subject of a referendum. The group's attorneys had argued that the law was an appropriations measure and therefore could not be put before voters.

Some community leaders in Baltimore County are fighting a referendum drive they say is backed by developers who are trying to "hijack" the county's zoning process because they didn't get their way. A coalition calling itself "Don't Sign It!" urged county residents Monday not to sign the petitions, which would put land-use decisions in Council Chairwoman Vicki Almond's and Councilwoman Cathy Bevins' districts on the 2014 ballot. The petition drive has ties to Howard Brown of David S. Brown Enterprises and to the Cordish Cos., two prominent development firms.