Last week, I sat through four excruciating hours of legislative hearings before the Ways and Means Committee of Maryland’s House of Delegates. I was waiting to testify on behalf of Citizens in Charge against House Bill 493.
For the 20 years before last November, not a single citizen-initiated referendum made it to the Maryland ballot. Why? The state boasts the country’s most draconian rules for verifying petition signatures. An attorney running his own petition effort had his signature disallowed because he did not sign one of his two middle names or write the initial.
Most states use the standard of “substantial compliance” — if they can tell it is the signature of the registered voter, they count it, even if it doesn’t appear exactly as written on the voter registration record. Maryland’s strict compliance, on the other hand, disallows the signature of “Joe” when it’s “Joseph” that’s official.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
2 comments:
Maryland used to be called the Free State. What a pity that is no longer true.
My signature is my signature, and is NOT my full name written in longhand, which is totally different. I have been called on this before, and have won my argument. If anyone cashes a check I may have lost with my full name as a "signature", we will be in court and I will win. Screw the petition rules.
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