Voters line up to cast ballots in Charles County in 2020. Too often, voters are shut out of the process of choosing candidates to fill legislative vacancies, write Linda Kohn and Nikki Tyree. (File photo by Angela Breck/Maryland Matters)
For too many people, voting is something done every four years in November despite the fact that there are, or should be, other elections that ask voters to choose among candidates that will have daily impacts on their lives. When people are not voting, their voices are not heard.
For decades, the League of Women Voters of Maryland has supported legislation that would require a special election when a vacancy in the General Assembly occurs. For a variety of reasons, delegates and senators in our legislature have left office before their term is up. However, this leaves Marylanders in a position where they are shut out of the choice of who fills those vacancies and represents them in Annapolis.
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If you were to be asked right now to name your senator or delegate, could you do it? Could your neighbor? Too often, voters participate in what is called undervoting. That means they don’t vote a whole ticket. The further you move down the ballot, the less likely you are to select a candidate for office. This leads to many people not knowing who represents them and, by default, having next to no idea who sits on the central committees that are appointing the representatives to fill these vacancies.
This has created an undemocratic cycle: A person, usually a delegate for a Senate seat or a party insider for a delegate seat, gets appointed with severely limited input from those they’re meant to represent. They can hold office for almost three years, sometimes until it’s time to vote in the midterms. Then, voters, not knowing who they are, vote for them simply because they’re the incumbent and were not challenged in the primaries.
The voter is left with a minimal stake in Annapolis because they were shut out from the beginning.
The current process has led to a situation where one in four legislators has been appointed, with Montgomery County leading, with 41% of its legislators being initially appointed by central committees instead of being elected.
Legislative representatives should be elected by their constituents. In a recent poll, 85% of Marylanders agreed that special elections should be held to fill a vacancy. In a democracy, the people elect representatives to make decisions and laws. In short, democracy depends on people voting to have their interests represented, not backroom deals with party insiders and their friends. It’s that simple.
This year, House Bill 174 and Senate Bill 2 have the momentum to finally pass out of their chambers. These bills propose an amendment to the Maryland Constitution requiring a special election to fill a vacancy in the office of delegate or senator. While this bill will not give Marylanders 100% of the power back, it is a clear step toward restoring the voter to the democratic process.
The League implores those who believe in democracy to let their legislators know that now is the time to pass the Special Elections bill and let Marylanders exercise their most sacred right: the vote.