State Elections

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. vetoed a bill yesterday allowing the state Democratic and Republican parties to pick members of the state elections board. The bill also would require all five election board members to have been confirmed by the state Senate before they could fire the elections administrator. Democrats pushed for the legislation after Ehrlich and his allies unsuccessfully tried last year to oust state elections administrator Linda H. Lamone by placing on the state board Democrats chosen by the governor but not vetted by the party.

Anyone driving north on Honeygo Boulevard in White Marsh one week ago Friday in midafternoon might have been surprised at the slow crawl of traffic. So many vehicles were turning into Honeygo Run Regional Park that the right lane was set aside for them, and in the parking lot cars filled every no-parking zone and every patch of grass that could be occupied. More patient souls simply circled, waiting for a regular space to open. It wasn't the boy's high school soccer playoff game that caused such a mess (although Perry Hall's overtime victory over Dulaney turned out to be a thriller)

The leaders of a Republican-backed petition drive to overturn Maryland's early-voting law filed suit in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court yesterday, alleging that the State Board of Elections illegally disqualified part of their effort. Marylanders for Fair Elections, a volunteer group with ties to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., filed the lawsuit in response to the board's determination last week that one part of the group's drive fell 138 signatures short of moving forward. The group also filed a request for an emergency hearing on the issue, which is scheduled for tomorrow.

Some voters in Montgomery and Prince George's counties have received absentee ballots that are missing a page containing referendum questions, state officials said Wednesday. The state Board of Elections has found that fewer than 20 absentee voters received ballots missing a second page, Gov. Martin O'Malley said in a statement. "Residents who have requested an absentee ballot should check to make certain they have a complete ballot with a second page that includes Questions 4-7, as well as any of the local county-related questions," O'Malley said.

Maryland Republicans, exercising the rights of gubernatorial victory, are taking control of election boards and the voting mechanisms they oversee in a little-noticed shift that could produce huge election day dividends. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s win in November means that the governor's Republican appointees dominate not only the state Board of Elections, but also the election panels in all 24 local jurisdictions - some of which are overwhelmingly Democratic. That gives the GOP final say in such matters as determining whether absentee ballots are valid, certifying the outcomes of races and deciding on challenges to election results.

Linda H. Lamone was back in her office yesterday as Maryland elections administrator until at least Friday morning under a temporary restraining order granted by an Anne Arundel County judge. Within two hours of entering the courtroom yesterday morning, Lamone strode back into the state elections office, where a dozen employees greeted her with applause and cheers. Some of the workers dabbed away tears as they exchanged hugs with Lamone. The acting administrator who had taken her place left before Lamone arrived.

Bid to cut vehicle pollution dies in Senate committee A bill to reduce air pollution from cars and trucks died yesterday in a state Senate committee after it was opposed by the Ehrlich administration, automobile manufacturers, car dealers and business groups. The so-called Clean Cars Bill was killed in a 6-5 vote by Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Environmental and public health groups, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the American Academy of Pediatrics, had supported tighter standards employed by California and seven Eastern states because of rising child asthma rates.

WHY are U.S. elections held on Tuesdays?While flipping through a copy of David Feldman's "Imponderables: The Solutions to the Mysteries of Everyday Life," we came across a brief history on this topic.There was a time when election dates were highly unpredictable. In provincial America there were no standard dates for voting and people had to travel to their county seats to cast their ballots.After the Revolutionary War, election dates within states grew more standardized, but there was little uniformity among different states.

The Court of Appeals yesterday ruled that the Baltimore Board of Elections acted properly when it refused to carry out an order by the state elections board to remove more than 32,000 names from the city's voter registration rolls.The court upheld a decision by Baltimore Circuit Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan, who ruled that changes in state laws nullified the state elections board's March 29 order to purge voters who had failed to vote in the past five years.The lawyer for the Baltimore elections board said the ruling -- a one-sentence order issued a day after oral arguments -- clears the way for a smooth city election Sept.

As Baltimore County fights a March deadline to set up new electronic voting machines, state officials said yesterday that they are willing to listen to proposals to grant it an extension. But at a negotiating session, no acceptable alternative emerged. The National Federation of the Blind, which is suing the county and state elections boards, said it would be content if each of the county's 200-plus polling stations had one electronic machine, or offered another way for blind people to vote privately.

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 Green and Libertarian parties are launching new petition drives to get their candidates for president and other offices on Maryland's November ballot after losing a battle before the state's highest court. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Monday that state elections officials were correct to disqualify thousands of signatures on petitions previously circulated by the two parties. Many signatures were thrown out as illegible or not consistent with the voter's official registration card.

When the Baltimore City Elections Board sent out sample ballots with the wrong primary date, Catherine Pugh pointed a finger at City Hall. Maybe that's to be expected from a candidate for mayor. Unless the candidate also is a state senator, who should know the state runs elections , not the city. "State Senator Catherine Pugh called on the city administration to take action immediately to correct their mistake on the sample ballot," reads a news release from her campaign.

Opponents of in-state tuition breaks for illegal immigrants have submitted more than enough valid signatures to suspend the controversial new law until voters have their say next year, state elections officials said Thursday. In the first day of reporting since petition organizers turned in the final batch of signatures last month, the Maryland Board of Elections announced that it had validated more than 63,000 names — far more than the roughly 55,736 needed to trigger a referendum in 2012.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III isn't endorsing anyone in the city state's attorney's race. Citizen Fred Bealefeld, however, has a clear preference. Lawn signs for defense attorney Gregg Bernstein, who is challenging Patricia C. Jessamy in the Democratic primary, sprouted up on the lawn of Bealefeld's Southwest Baltimore home this week. Bealefeld declined an interview, but through a department spokesman issued a carefully worded statement saying police "are doing everything we can to reduce crime in our city.

Maryland hasn't seen a lot of voter fraud prosecutions — the last was six years ago — but that doesn't mean that authorities should look the other way when potential irregularities are uncovered. Such is the case with the recent audit that found some possible examples of double-voting in 2008. State elections officials say in that general election, there were 189 cases where votes were cast more than once under the same name. That audit result, first reported this week by the Towson Times , is not particularly alarming.

In a move to force Maryland to upgrade its 16,000 new electronic voting machines, a citizens group in Takoma Park has teamed with a national organization headed by a founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream to press for passage of legislation that would require a paper record of votes cast. TrueVoteMD.org and TrueMajority, an advocacy group founded by ice cream mogul Ben Cohen, ran a full-page ad in The Sun yesterday urging the public to call two key committee chairwomen in Annapolis -- Sen. Paula C. Hollinger and Del. Sheila E. Hixson -- and recommend passage of House Bill 53 and Senate Bill 393. The bills would force Maryland to add printers capable of printing out every ballot cast in the November election, allowing voters to verify their vote before leaving the polling place.

You know that former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas and President Bush won Tuesday's primaries in Maryland. You don't know who's been elected as delegates to the Democratic and Republican conventions.Neither does anyone else -- yet.Party leaders and state elections officials say they won't be releasing a list of convention delegates until later today.Why does it take so long? "It's very complicated," said Gene M. Raynor, administrator of the state Board of Election Laws. "It's a long, long ballot."

The nation's largest provider of voting equipment will unwind its acquisition last year of its principal rival as part of an antitrust settlement with Maryland and eight other states, the Department of Justice announced. Election Systems & Software completed its purchase of Premier Election Solutions Inc., formerly Diebold Inc., six days before bids were due for the installation of a new optical scan voting system in Maryland. The acquisition limited the state to contracting with the Omaha, Neb., giant or continuing with its current system, according to the office of Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler.