In the 96 years that Maryland voters have been allowed to challenge state laws through a voter referendum, just 17 attempts have made it on the ballot, and none have gotten that far in the last 20 years. The reason isn't that the state hasn't passed any controversial legislation in that time, or that the threshold for signatures — a number equivalent to 3 percent of the votes cast for governor in the last election — is especially high. The reason, particularly in recent years, is that the legal requirements for what counts as a valid signature have grown increasingly Byzantine, such that a huge percentage of them are typically thrown out.
Successfully navigating the process, even for a local law, has required a well-financed and organized effort, and traditionally, the one group you'd think would have the funding, organization and desire to overturn laws enacted by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly — the state Republican Party — has either sat on the sidelines or failed to get the job done. Even a 2006 effort backed by a sitting Republican governor failed to meet all the requirements.
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