Guest Commentary: Maryland Manipulates “Majority” Vote

Some vote counting scandals receive front page news coverage and shock the world; others remain invisible. Such is the difference between Florida’s 2000 presidential election and Maryland’s 2010 referendum to convene a state constitutional convention. Both involved vote counting practices more associated with petty dictatorships than advanced Western democracies.

The first article of Maryland’s Declaration of Rights grants Marylanders the right to reform their government when the legislative branch prefers the status quo, as in its practice of pro-incumbent legislative gerrymanders. This right was implemented in Article XIV of Maryland’s Constitution, which mandates that a referendum on whether to convene a constitutional convention automatically be placed on the ballot every twenty years, with the requisite majority to pass the ambiguously defined “majority of voters at such election or elections.” The primary alternative way to bypass an intransigent legislature, the initiative, is not available in Maryland.

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